My Field Trip to the Tuskegee National Forest and the Mann Museum in Opelika, Alabama

By: Cameron

Hi, my name is Cameron. On October 29, 2001, my 6th grade gifted class, along with the 4th and 5th grade gifted classes and the Talent Pool of the Phenix City Intermediate School went on a trip to the Tuskegee National Forest and the Mann Museum and Outdoors in Opelika, Alabama. We rode on a school bus; the ride there was fun, because a lot of my friends were in Talent Pool. Most of the ride we talked, played hand-held games, and listened to music with my friends, Cody P., Logan, Cody T., and Philip. The ride was 40 minutes long, even though it didn't seem long.

First, we went to the Tuskegee National Forest where we talked to Ranger Willie Humphrey about stream and pond ecology. We saw very little wildlife, but we did see hawks, fire ants, and yellow jacks. I learned that yellow jacks bite instead of stinging, and Lyle learned first hand in the small of his back.

After that, we went to the Mann Museum and Outdoors, which was a lot better than The National Forest. There we saw a ton of animal exhibits. The entire walk through the museum was half a mile long! We saw exhibits like timber wolves, cougars, rattlesnakes, grizzly bears, whitetail deer, and Alaskan moose, which is the largest breed of deer and moose. Some of the exhibits were action poses of animals attacking others or animals with their children. Mr. Mann, the owner, told us that every animal in the museum was killed with a bow and arrow to preserve the meat of the animal. Imagine trying to kill an 800 pound, 7 feet tall grizzly with only a bow and arrow!

After the tour through the museum, we had lunch outside on picnic tables in their "back yard". They had a few deer that they had in a caged area that visitors could feed and pet. Around the deer area, they had a nature trail that you could hike through. I fed some of the deer acorns that I found on the ground around the trail.

On the trip back, we basically did what we did on the way there, talk, listen to music, and play games.