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Every once in a while I hop on the Arkansas State Parks website to check out upcoming events. We were reading about the invention of the Cotton Gin in history this week, so I tickled to see a "Cotton Gin Demonstration" was being held at the Plantation Agriculture Museum in Scott, AR. I called ahead to verify what time we needed to be there and was told to come on down at our convenience and they could do a demonstration anytime.
Wow! What a fun and interactive demonstration of the cotton gin. The parks guide was so knowledgeable, patient, and engaging with our crew.
He encouraged the kids to all feel the cotton and to try to remove the seeds by hand. After seeing how cumbersome it would be to have to hand remove each little seed, he brought out the cotton gin, opened it up, and explained just how it worked.
Then he encouraged each of the kids to take a turn at the crank. They were delighted when the cotton gin started spitting out the seeds.
He then briefly talked through some of the other exhibits (like the grading of cotton), before letting the children explore on their own. We had fun guessing how many t-shirts, dollar bills, and pairs of jeans could be made from a bale of cotton.
We pumped water for the "mules" with a hand pump, discussed all the foods seed oils are found in and how that influenced the standard American diet. We had conversations about how much the laborers picking cotton were paid, along with child labor and slave labor. The cotton gin sure revolutionized the agricultural industry, but not necessarily all in a positive way. They also had exhibits on the boll weevil and the shifting of agriculture in Arkansas to rice. Since we are also studying Homestead Science this year, it all tied together very nicely into our studies.
Once we left the main museum, we toured the Dortch Gin Exhibit which housed a very large 1916 cotton gin. Can you imagine how loud, how, and dusty it would have been working in there. It also would have been very dangerous with all the large moving belts.
Then we toured Seed Warehouse #5. The kids especially liked the auger system and were fascinated by the fire prevention information. The seeds would heat up, sort of like composts, and hot spots could quickly cause a devastating fire.
And of course our boys loved seeing the railway cars and checking out the Historic Tractor Exhibit.
Highly recommend stopping by to check out this little gem of a State Park if you are near Scott, AR. Just down the street is the Plum Bayou State Park (previously called Toltec Mounds) that we have visiting on several occasions when studying early Native American History and Arkansas History.
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