Discovery Trails Program Accessible Arts, Inc and the Ks State School for the Blind The Discovery Trails Program is an award-winning adventure in history— Experienced, interpreted, and shared through the arts       Designed for teenagers who are blind or visually impaired, the Program engages the teens in summer camping along the westering Trails, followed by a fall weekend of artistic explorations of Trail themes, and a day of using the arts to teach Trail topics in elementary school classrooms.         The Discovery Trails Program is for any teen who is blind or visually impaired, between the ages of 14 and 20, who has the physical stamina to live outdoors for two weeks and the mental and emotional capacity to travel by imagination to the middle of the 1800s while we travel by minivan through the landscapes the pioneers experienced.  Youngsters need social skills adequate to living closely with a group of thirty-six for days on end.  Cost to the family is $250.        The 2008 Trail Trek will be the eleventh year of trail programming, which Accessible Arts organizes and conducts in collaboration with the Kansas State School for the Blind.  This will be the first year we devote our entire fifteen-day camping venture to exploring the caravans, cultures, characters, and geography of the Santa Fe Trail, 1821-1867.        As many as eighteen teens, ages 14-20, and a comparable number of adult companions, will travel the Mountain Route westward and the Dry Route on return from Santa Fe, beginning June 4th and ending June 19th 2008.  We will set up our tents in places known to have been wagon train camps; during the days, we will immerse ourselves in the activities, cultures and tensions known to have occupied the Santa Fe travelers of the 1800s.  Our goal is to introduce the teens to trail history through physical activity, imaginative reenactment, and accurate first-person stories.  The arts are our primary tools:  the music, dance and songs of the era; the drama of historical characters amid high adventure; the hand-crafts and ritual artifacts of cultures—all help our caravan of teens and adults live as Santa Fe travelers once lived. The Santa Fe Trek, June 4-19, 2008 Caravans, Cultures, and Characters Along the Santa Fe Trail June 4, WED  Gathering and orientation:  eighteen teens and twenty staff gather at Kansas State School for the Blind for orientation and gear check; supply truck is loaded with tents, gear, food, stoves, arts supplies, coolers, water.  The spirits of Trail travelers may appear to give us a first-hand idea of what our caravan will encounter. June 5  THURS  Kansas City to Durham KS:  The physical Trail is investigated at the crossing of Cottonwood River.  First night’s camp in Marion County, Kansas, on private property on the Santa Fe Trail, focused on introductions to setting up tents and organizing camp.  Santa Fe traders who circled their wagons in the area may be heard around our campfire. June 6  FRI  Durham to Larned KS:  Intro to the earliest Trail travelers—Coronado’s troops, Santa Fe trader Chavez, and Saint Louis fur traders William and Charles Bent and Ceran Saint Vrain.  Camp at Pawnee Camp on outskirts of Larned.  David Clapsaddle will introduce us to George Bent at our campfire. June 7  SAT  Ft. Larned KS to Ft. Lyon CO (John Martin Reservoir):  The US soldiers and the Native Americans, stories  of uneasiness, violence, regrets and revenge.  We will stop at the site of the Sand Creek Massacre, then camp at Big Timbers (John Martin Reservoir) where the evening will include a reconciliation ceremony designed by the teens. June 8  SUN  JM Reservoir to Bent’s Old Fort and Kit Carson home at Boggsville CO:  The better part of the day will be spent at Old Bents Fort, then camp at the Carson memorial. Kit Carson’s great-great-grandson, John Carson, will bring Kit to life at our camp fire. June 9  MON  Boggsville to Trinadad CO:  Focus on Marion Sloan Russell (visit to family homestead, grave) and other women on the Trail—Susan Maggofin, Loretto Sisters and Sisters of Charity, wives of soldiers. Camping and cooking with Dutch oven specialists at Colt Ranch. June 10  TUES  Trinadad to Taos NM:  bask in the hospitality of the Taos Pueblo.  We may camp on tribal lands. June 11  WED  Taos to Pojoaque Pueblo, Santa Fe NM:  more of the world and times of Kit Carson: visit Carson Home Museum in Taos; then follow the Rio Grande river valley southward (with a short wade or dip along the way).  Camping for this and next three nights on soccer field on Pojoaque Pueblo northwest of Santa Fe. June 12  THURS  Pojoaque Pueblo:  elders teach trail teens and local teens to make traditional drums and gourd rattles.  Evening around the campfire may include traditional social dancing—Anglo contra dances and Pueblo community dances--with Pojoaque Pueblo teens. June 13  FRI  Santa Clara and San Alfonso Pueblos:  San Antonio feast day dances and opportunities to meet and eat with Pueblo families.  Display of dance regalia at old Boys and Girls clubhouse at our campsite.  Evening tours of Old Santa Fe. June 14  SAT  Las Golondrinas Living History Museum:  day-long activities.  Evening with a genuine cowboy, blacksmith, historian, author, friend of the Trail. June 15  SUN  Santa Fe to Rayado, NM:  leaving Santa Fe, catch up with a pack of mules and learn to load and drive them, on the Trail at the Carson Ranch on the lands of Philmont Boy Scout Ranch. Camping at Philmont. June 16  MON  Philmont to Point of Rocks NM:  climbing and exploring the streambed, and graves near Point of Rocks.  Ghost stories around the campfire. June 17  TUES  Point of Rocks to Elkhart KS:  stops at Trail sites and activities recalling Spanish and Mexican traders and trail hands (and maybe a dinosaur or two).  Campsite at National Grasslands near Elkhart with activities jointly planned with National Grasslands personnel. June 18  WED  Grasslands to Lower Cimarron Springs:  afternoon and evening with Jeff Trotman as “Jedediah Smith”.  Last campfire, with ceremonial leave-takings. June 19  THURS  Ulysses KS to Kansas City:  one day’s drive, with lunch stop.  Activities in the vans emphasize skills for sharing stories with family and friends.  Arrival at Kansas State School for the Blind about 8 pm. The teens return to their families and friends with stories of the Trail, enthusiasm for the geography and adventures along the way, and confidence to share these stories and adventures.  With the support and continued direction of the trail staff, the teens carry their enthusiasm for the Trail beyond family and friends to classrooms of children and to gatherings of adults, especially Lions Clubs and senior centers.  This fall, for the first time, we will partner with the Wyandotte County Library system to provide after-school trail programs by the Trail teens.  Teens who live beyond Kansas City will be included in the arts weekend and assisted in their home towns by Trail staff. Arts & History Weekend, late October or November —Friday evening through Sunday afternoon with Trail teens and Trail staff artist-educators.  The weekend of artistic activities results in materials that creatively display the teens’ trail experiences, plus a lesson plan for using the artistic materials as teaching tools in presentations to elementary schools and libraries in the weeks immediately following the Arts Weekend. Teaching and presenting, November through March —Trail teens, working in teams, spend a full day in a grade school collaborating with the fourth or fifth grade teachers to present hands-on lessons about Trail times.  This year there may be two or three school sites plus the Wyandotte County Public Library, plus school teaching and presentations in Trail teens’ home towns beyond Kansas City. As many as 200 elementary school students and another 100-150 adults will hear directly from the teen pioneers during the year following their Santa Fe trek.  Additionally, video of the adventures, professionally edited into programming for public television, will demonstrate to an audience of several hundred thousand that youngsters who are blind or visually impaired have enjoyed ready access to the Santa Fe Trail through the agency of the National Park Service; that these teens are fully competent to master the challenges of outdoor life and historical adventure; and that the teens are willing and able to make significant contributions to their communities as Trail ambassadors. Kansas City Public Television will again gladly accept a documentary from the Discovery Trails Program.  Time-Warner’s public access television will also air a short version of the documentary.  In addition, two young adult filmmakers from Reelworks in Brooklyn, New York, will join our trek in order to make their own film about the Trail teens.  Films made by Reelworks have routinely received national acclaim and airing at Sundance and other festivals.

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