Students to teach community about Clallam County history

A student who wants to save African elephants found a local subject that interested her. Raven Taylor wrote about those elephants’ extinct descendants, mastodons, and the 1977 chance discovery at the Manis property of a mastodon’s bones – with a human-made spear point in a bone that showed human presence near Sequim 13,800 years ago, earlier than previous evidence.

Her paper and four others will be presented at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 15, at Lincoln Center, 905 W. 9th St., Port Angeles.

The public in invited to talk to the students (sixth- to 11th-grade students) and examine their presentations.

The event is sponsored by North Olympic History Center, formerly the Clallam County Historical Society, and is the first year of the “Hands on History” program, in which Clallam County students were asked to submit papers about the county’s history along with a visual display about their subjects.

“The purpose of the program is to educate our citizens about the vivid history of Clallam County,” Patrick Noonan, the center’s education chair, said. “Virtually none of us has had a course in county history and our kids are stepping up to correct that.”

Besides the Manis mastodon paper, there are: “Scandinavian Settlement at Lake Ozette” by Emaleigh Smith; “Minerva Troy” by Cecilia Estrada Elena; “Unleashing the Beast: The Elwha River Restoration Project” by Talia Anderson, Abby Sanders and Maize Tucker, and “The Ferries of Lake Crescent” by Peter Zelenka.

After opening remarks, the audience will be invited to meet with students to discuss their papers and displays. Judges will be in the audience, grading the students’ work. Results and scholarships will be announced April 16.

“This is the first year for Hands on History,” Noonan said. “We plan to repeat the event annually with new topics and more students. We encourage county residents to come out, learn from the kids and support this exciting new program,” he added.

The presentation event is part of the center’s monthly History Tales program.