Eighth Grade Hazel Creek Trip
The eighth grade trip to Hazel Creek is a carefully designed expedition that provides students with a unique educational experience.
Preparation for the trip begins with a summer reading assignment of Daniel Quinn’s novel, Ishmael. During their first week of school in the language arts class, students discuss and write about this book which examines cultural sustainability and natural resource management. They spend the next three or four weeks studying local history through the lens of the ideas expressed in Ishmael. Topics include:
- settler activity in the region,
- Cherokee removal,
- mining and logging activity,
- forest succession,
- boom and bust economic cycles experienced here,
- ALCOA’s development of the Little Tennessee Valley’s hydroelectric potential,
- Area conservationist, activist, and author Horace Kephart
- the creation of the National Park,
- and finally, the construction of Fontana Dam and the ensuing North Shore Road issue.
After weeks of studying this information using Lance Holland’s Fontana, A Pocket History of Appalachia and visiting experts as a primary resource, students and teachers embark on a week-long trip up Hazel Creek where they get to see ruins of the town of Proctor and the Ritter lumber mill, the Adams-Westfeldt mine, the site of Medlin (another town on Hazel Creek), and of course, the 65-year old second growth forest of the Hazel Creek drainage.
Students are divided into five groups of reporter teams, each of which is responsible for copy and pictures for a press release in the Smoky Mountain Times. In addition, they spend time journaling, discussing the various eras of Hazel Creek history, and gathering data for our ongoing study of forest succession in the valley. For even more details click here to read the press releases generated by students about this year's trip.
Upon their return to school, students polish their notes for press releases, process forest succession data into a research paper, and in computer skills class, they generate an informative brochure about one of the eras of local history.
All in all, this is a very rich experience that we are honored to be able to provide for our students.