MONROE - Before streets, before houses, before schools and before Monroe became a city there were trees, rivers and open ground.
Students at Northside Elementary School learned about pioneer life Friday from two men who know about history.
Jack Oostdik and Tom Osterday, members of the Yellowstone Flint and Cap Club, visited with the students as part of a week-long program to talk about Monroe's pre-settlement days. The two men, along with Gary Johnson, visited all of the elementary schools in Monroe.
Oostdik and Osterday not only talked to the students, they showed off items commonly used by the people who traveled to what was considered "wilderness" in the 1820s and 1830s.
These were people who came to the area for a wide variety of reasons, Osterday explained.
"Some of the first pioneers came to find adventure," Osterday said. "Some came to strike it rich, or to find a new home or for a fresh start."
Many of the early pioneers wouldn't have been able to make it without the help of the Native Americans, who were here before the first pioneers ever visited the area.
"The Indians showed them how to get food, how to build a fire and how to make their own clothes," Osterday said.
Everything the pioneers needed to survive, their rifle, knife, ax, gunpowder and musket balls, the had to carry with them.
Osterday explained that it took a few minutes to load their single-shot rifles.
"You had to get the job done with one lead bullet or you had to use your knife or ax," he told the students.
"Or run," Oostdik added as the children laughed.
Early pioneers wasn't the only topic the kids learned about Friday. Johnson appeared as an early cheesemaker and explained how the cheese industry became important to Monroe.
Students at Northside Elementary School learned about pioneer life Friday from two men who know about history.
Jack Oostdik and Tom Osterday, members of the Yellowstone Flint and Cap Club, visited with the students as part of a week-long program to talk about Monroe's pre-settlement days. The two men, along with Gary Johnson, visited all of the elementary schools in Monroe.
Oostdik and Osterday not only talked to the students, they showed off items commonly used by the people who traveled to what was considered "wilderness" in the 1820s and 1830s.
These were people who came to the area for a wide variety of reasons, Osterday explained.
"Some of the first pioneers came to find adventure," Osterday said. "Some came to strike it rich, or to find a new home or for a fresh start."
Many of the early pioneers wouldn't have been able to make it without the help of the Native Americans, who were here before the first pioneers ever visited the area.
"The Indians showed them how to get food, how to build a fire and how to make their own clothes," Osterday said.
Everything the pioneers needed to survive, their rifle, knife, ax, gunpowder and musket balls, the had to carry with them.
Osterday explained that it took a few minutes to load their single-shot rifles.
"You had to get the job done with one lead bullet or you had to use your knife or ax," he told the students.
"Or run," Oostdik added as the children laughed.
Early pioneers wasn't the only topic the kids learned about Friday. Johnson appeared as an early cheesemaker and explained how the cheese industry became important to Monroe.