GEORGETOWN – Upper Elementary students from Free Horizon Montessori in Golden took to the rails for an end of year field trip and a hands-on learning experience.
The field trip was the culmination of a year of study on the western migration, silver and gold rushes and railroad.
Free Horizon Montessori 4th – 6th grade students ride Georgetown Loop Railroad for hands-on lesson in western expansion.
The fourth through sixth graders began their adventure by riding the Georgetown Loop Railroad. Students rode in open cars over mountainous terrain and a river, and through the trees and rocky landscape on the 3.1-mile narrow gauge track. Completed in 1884, the Loop connects Georgetown and Silver Plume and was considered an engineering marvel for its time. The mountain canyon that divides the two towns is steep and narrow and transporting passengers and freight between the two thriving mining towns was otherwise extremely difficult.
To connect the two, the railroad’s builders designed a “corkscrew” route that traveled twice the distance, slowly gaining more than 600 feet in elevation. The route included horseshoe curves, grades of up to 4%, and four bridges across Clear Creek, including the massive Devil’s Gate High Bridge. – Georgetown Loop Railroad Website.
The railroad was used until 1938 when it was abandoned. It wasn’t until 1973 when restoration began for tourism and education.
Free Horizon Montessori 6th Grade students channel their inner 1890’s miner before entering the Lebanon Mine outside of Georgetown.
The students also took a tour of the Lebanon Silver Mine as part of the Georgetown Loop experience. Split into small groups and wearing hardhats, students walked 500 feet into a mine still rich with veins of silver.
Tour guides shared stories to illustrate the different positions held at the mine, how they bore the tunnels, the conditions miners worked in and how the miners lived while at work and their home life. Students gained a new perspective on their lives in today’s world, vs. the incredibly hard work and constant health threats in a world over 100 years old. Many gasped while listening to stories about kids their age who worked in the mines and carried explosives into the tunnels for the miners. Life expectancy wasn’t long and wasn’t comfortable.
Free Horizon students learned many children their age lost limbs and digits when they worked in the mines and carried boxes of explosives to miners.
The field trip was the perfect culmination of a year working through lessons, books and personal works, for the students to retrace history and walk in the footsteps of miners and pioneers.
Free Horizon Montessori is a Jeffco charter public school serving children in preschool through 8th grades.
