As a student at Houlton Elementary School in the 1990s, Jerusha Benn took a field trip to the Kings Landing Historical Settlement in New Brunswick and remembers enjoying it.
Now a social studies teacher at Central Aroostook Jr.-Sr. High School in Mars Hill, Benn has been taking her eighth grade class to the 300 acre living history museum in Prince William for three years, including a Sept. 13 trip before the school district went on harvest break.
“When you get there, it’s like you are going back in time,” Benn said.
“Kids can lay in the beds, dress in colonial clothing, go see a pithouse, see a grist mill demonstrating how they made buckwheat flour. The kids really get transported back in time.”
The Kings Landing Historical Settlement is one of Canada’s most popular living history museums, created in 1974 with real and replicated historic buildings after construction of the Mactaquac Dam flooded an a historic village on the Saint John River.
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- Eighth graders from Central Aroostook Jr. High School in Mars Hill visit the Kings Landing Living Historical Settlement in Prince William, New Brunswick, on Sept. 13. Social studies teacher Jerusha Benn has been taking her eighth grade class to the museum for three years. (Courtesy of Central Aroostook Jr.-Sr. High School)
The settlement’s exhibits cover the history of New Brunswick’s River Valley in the 19th century, spanning everything from the British Loyalists, the evolution of potato farming and lumbering, and black New Brunswickers and the Underground Railroad. Some of the village exhibits are “first person,” with historical actors who interact with visitors.
The museum is located closer than Bangor for much of Aroostook County and it’s a good opportunity for field trips, Benn said.
“It’s close, it’s unique, it’s not expensive over all,” she said, adding that the cost came to $10 per student. Crossing the border is not a problem, requiring a copy of each student’s birth certificate and a parental permission slip, and it’s a good part of the experience she said.
“For many kids, it’s the first time they’ve been to Canada,” Benn said.
The trip to the historic settlement helps students understand colonial history and was also a good way to start the school year, letting students enjoy a trip and experience some of what they’ll be learning about, Benn said.
“At Central Aroostook, field trips are encouraged. There’s a lot of value in field trips.”
