During the spring, eight Gifted and Talented students from Abner S. Baker Central School came to the museum for four days (one hour each day) to learn about research and the history of their community.
Museum Facilitator: Sarah Woodman
Teacher: Renaye Notzka
Day One: The students toured the Bloedorn Research Room where Mary Preston told them about the resources at the museum including the Fort Morgan Times on microfilm, high school annuals, telephone books, city directories, and various books about the history of Morgan County.
Day Two: They toured Riverside Cemetery and each student chose two people who had died previous to 1940 who they wanted to research further. They photographed the headstones. Two deceased were chosen in case one did not have an obituary.
Day Three: Each student found the obituary of their person in the Fort Morgan Times or Brush News Tribune. They also looked through One Hundred and Eleven Trees and Tombstone Inscriptions and Burials of Morgan County, Colorado as well as other publications to see if they could find additional information about their person. They then filled out a Cemetery Research Form using the information that they had gathered from the headstone, obituary, and various publications.
Day Four: Using the information they had found, each student compiled a factual description as well as a fictional "Day in the Life" story of their person.
The students' Cemetery Heritage Hunt displays are on view in the lower gallery of the Museum during the month of May.
