Spring Trip 2014: Karenna writes about Old Fort Niagara

Our first stop on Jason and Sam’s ⅚ class Spring trip was Old Fort Niagara, in the state of New York. On the outside you couldn’t tell how many traps were lying in wait for the British, there were deep ditches, stake walls, and cannons hiding behind the small round hills. At first glance, it looks like some kind of moat, but if you take a closer look, steep ditches create numerous hills, high walls, and the tight fences prevent people who don’t know where the entrance, is from coming in.

After we walked around to the side of the fort, a bridge stood there, leading to the entrance. The tour guide asked us to find ways the French could have prevented the British from entering, and after a bit, he told us. There were small hills on the side near the entrance, and behind them were cannons loaded with grapeshot (bullets that were shot out of cannons). There was also a drawbridge, but no one knew why the half of the bridge closest to the fort was wooden. According to the tour guide, it was so the French could burn it down if the British were attacking. To us, it didn’t make much sense, but to the French, keeping their fort was much more important that keeping a bridge.

After we entered, we toured the building where the resources were kept, and the building where the gun powder was kept, before our tour guide handed us over to some French military, so we could learn how to be a soldier. One of the soldiers (his name was Lee) demonstrated shooting his gun, before handing us our own muskets to practice firing. (Ours were wooden, don’t worry) we learned how to hold them, load them and fire them, with specific steps that were very terrifying. SPRINKLE SPRINKLE SPRINKLE!!! See how intimidating I am?

Next came my favorite part. I have just one sentence to describe it. Are you ready? La Bayonet! La Bayonet! La Bayonet!! Thats right folks, we used the famous invisible bayonets to storm an American soldier and a British musician! After we won our battle, and completed our training, we were left to explore the fort as we liked. So I went and spent my time looking inside the buildings, and enjoying the scenic hills. Overall, I think Old Fort Niagara was one of my favorite sites that we visited! You should definitely try out the soldier thing. La Bayonet! La Bayonet! La Bayonet!!

In one of the supply buildings, we experimented with different pulley systems to see how simple machines can make moving heavy items much, much easier. 

We also learned a lot about barrels, which amused Lee for some reason.