History Comes Alive...In Our Own Backyard!

After taking a history walk around our neighborhood, students began an ongoing cross-curricular project centered around an abandoned family cemetery. Students have documented the history of the Thomas Eddie Family, memorialized in the cemetery. They have added to the Sunset Hills historical archives. Upon discoverin that Thomas Eddie was a mountain man, and one of the 7 trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Expedition before becoming one of the first settlers in our area, students became determined to preserve his legacy. Students cleaned up his abandoned family cemetery, raised funds for a granite marker and dedicated the marker with the help of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Students enlisted help of experts to restore broken tombstones. After learning through oral histories that the Eddie family slaves were buried on the site but unmarked, the students designed and installed a memorial garden to the Eddie Slaves. The students raised funds to replace the broken down fence surrounding the cemetery. Students hold open houses at the cemetery to share with the community what they have learned about our neighborhood history.

Students are now empowered to take on more local historic preservation projects and plan to work on collecting oral histories in the neighborhood. Former students return to mentor current students, present at conferences from student perspective. Students have received letters and thank yous from the neighborhood for their clean-up efforts. We received a National Character Education Best Practices Award. Students are invited to be honorary members of the Historical Society.