EPHRAIM—Students from Spring City Elementary recently became one of the first school groups to make a field trip to Pioneer Park in Ephraim, which has been renamed “Ephraim Heritage Museum and Cabins.”
A member of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers (SUP) oversees Spring City Elementary students as they practice log cutting during a field trip to the Ephraim Heritage Museum and Cabins (formerly Pioneer Park) in Ephraim.
During the tour on Tuesday, May 17, volunteers from local Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP) and Sons of the Utah Pioneers (SUP) chapters showed students some of the artifacts in the park and at the remodeled Hansen House, a 19th Century house on the property.
The Pioneer Park project was started by a group of women from the DUP in 1986. “They acquired the cabins. They laid the grass. They made it into a Pioneer Park….This was their dream,” said Sarah Thomas, Ephraim Heritage Museum director.
For the field trips, the DUP and the SUP set up stations where students could learn about various aspects of pioneer life.
A volunteer from the Sons of Utah Pioneers South Sanpete Chapter is teaching students about Fort Ephraim.
One of the stations was the Hansen House, which is divided into two sections. In the upstairs, students learned about sewing and clothes back in the pioneer days. On the first level, students learned about the prominent citizens of Ephraim.
Other stations included learning how to play a hoop game, where kids used a stick to guide an old barrel hoop, using a log saw, and learning about Fort Ephraim and how high the pioneers had to build the walls.
Going forward, Thomas wants to invite fourth and seventh grade classes throughout the county to take the tour, since both grades study Utah history in their curriculum. She also wants to recruit community members as guides.
“I need volunteers who would like to invest in the park; help keep the museum open [in the] spring, summer and fall; and help with field trips,” Thomas said.
