Frank Visits the Sandy Creek Covered Bridge in Goldman, MO!

Since I had to take the Illinois Content Test for Elementary and Middle Grades this weekend in St. Louis, I decided to pack up Frank and bring him along for the ride. Frank enjoyed riding shotgun on the dashboard. Once in St. Louis, Frank and I decided to brush up on some knowledge before I had to take a very important test. To do this, we decided to visit the St. Louis Science Center to refresh our memories on important facts about the human body at the Body World exhibit. Frank loved it, although he was somewhat disappointed that the exhibit did not feature any dog parts.

After the science center, Frank started quizzing me on historical architecture. I was a little rusty with this information, so we decided to visit the Sandy Creek Covered Bridge in Goldman, MO. Once at the covered bridge site, we learned so much! There were once over thirty covered bridges in the state of Missouri. Now, there are only four left. It was really neat to see this beautiful part of history. This bridge was built in 1872 to span the width of Sandy Creek. It was built using the Howe-Truss design which did not feature any support beams on the underside of the bridge. The bridge was placed on the list of National Historical Sites in 1974 and restored in 1984. The information that Frank and I found to be the most interesting was that whomever built a bridge during this time period could charge whatever toll they would like for use of the bridge. For this particular bridge, pedestrians had the cheapest toll at 3 cents per person. For every wagon that crossed, it was 9 cents, and different animals also carried various tolls.

The site was absolutely beautiful. Frank and I enjoyed a nice picnic on the grounds of this state historic site. We were saddened by the graffiti that was everywhere on the inside of the bridge. Frank and I wondered why people have to deface such a beautiful and historic landmark.

After learning so much about the bridge and the time period, Frank and I decided to take an afternoon drive around the country to talk about what we had learned over the weekend. Frank was a great travel companion! From Carbondale, IL to the bridge in Goldman, Mo totaled two hundred miles round trip.

Sarah visits the General John A. Logan monument.

After reading about the civil war and about how people from right here in Southern Illinois were very much involved with it, Sarah became very intrigued with one man in particular, John A. Logan. "Here in Southern Illinois," Sarah exclaimed, "there is a community college, a grade school, a museum, murals, and other interesting dedications to his name. Why was he so important?"

This morning, in my kitchen in Murphysboro (John A. Logan's birth town, interestingly enough), Sarah and I researched why John A. Logan is so celebrated in the Southern Illinois area. As it turns out, John A. Logan was a racist man prior to his success as a Union General during the Civil War. He had been a Democrat, politically, but changed his views to be a supporter of the Republican party. Also, he served as a state Senator for three terms and ran for vice president, supported greatly by Fredrick Douglass during this time.

Without John A. Logan, there would be no Memorial Day. Sarah thought this was very interesting! Can you imagine not having the day to celebrate the men and women who serve to protect our freedom?

Learning about how important John A. Logan was to our Nation's history made Sarah want to visit one of the sites that was dedicated to him. Incredibly, one of the four statues that has been dedicated to him in the entire nation sits right in front of the Murphysboro Middle School in Murphysboro, Illinois. We decided this would be a great place to visit, because it was close, and because we thought that it was very pretty! An interesting piece of information is that this is one of the only statues that honors a civil war hero and also honors his wife. Logan's wife was also very active in the civil war efforts with her husband, and extremely active in her community. The huge marble statue sits in the school yard, surrounded each day by school children who wait for their parents to pick them up. Luckily, we visited on a Saturday so we could get a good look at it!

From Sarah's home in the Wham building at SIU, it is a 17.76 mile drive round trip. It only took about 20 minutes to get to the statue after I picked Sarah up. The statue sits at North 37 degrees (latitude) and West 89 degrees (longitude). If you put those coordinates into your GPS, you can't miss the statue!

All in all, it was a pretty exciting trip. We both learned a lot, and we got to see one of the coolest statues in the area, honoring a man who did so much not just for my community, but for this entire nation!

Welcome Dog Travelers

Once again the students of CI 424, Teaching Elementary Social Studies, are embarking upon exciting adventures with the class mascot, our own little Traveling Ambassador. As each student takes the 'dog' to a historical or geographic site, each will be learning more about our region, our station, and our nation. Tourism is one of Southern Illinois' biggest sources of revenue. So what better way to integrate geography, history, and civics than by taking a companion on a possible field trip site!
Don't forget the criteria...post a picture with you and the dog at the site, check for spelling and grammar errors before posting, create a story about your adventure, put your name in the story, state the latitude and longitude of the site, the miles traveled, and other interesting details. Have fun as we journey through this anniversary year!
1861--2011: The 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the War between the States
9-11-2001--9-11-2011: The 10th anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers