Jr Park Ranger: Salem Maritime

Salem Maritime is a national historic park in Salem, ma.  Yes, many people know about the unfortunate history of witches and pointing fingers in the 1600s, however, Salem was also an important shipping port.   Many people and things came into the port. 

There is a movie to watch (it costs money and is currently broken), a walk along the red path (easy to follow to the different historic areas), the Friendship ship to explore and a lighthouse tour/ stamp area.   The boys learned about different parts of the ship and different items brought to Salem harbor.   

Jr. Park Ranger: Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration Historical Site

The Theodore Roosevelt inaugural site is in Buffalo, NY.  The site is a house that belonged to a local family.  The reason he was inaugurated there was due to McKinley's assassination.   The tour of the house asks you to imagine life back in 1902. Some rooms in the house are set up as the would have been.  There is a short multi-media presentation using a the speech from Roosevelt discussing issues of the time.   It was remarkable how many of the issues are still in the news today.  The tour ended on the second floor where you could sit at the presidents desk, take a picture with him and see some artifacts from that time period.  The boys enjoyed seeing old movies (the type where you look into a box and crank the movie yourself).  They, surprisingly didn't remark about the lack of sound and the slowness of some of the films.