Coopers Rock State Forest

Howdy all!
Late last night I finally finished uploading all of the photos that I took last week. I had them on my cell phone, on a small pocket camera and on a larger camera. Oh, and I almost forgot that Logan took two disposable cameras with him...so there was lots to put on to a CD.
I'm going to try to share some of the photos and explain where they were taken and what they are.
So, you'll have to bear with me as it could take a good many posts to do so in.
Hope you all like History and Science!

Coopers Rock State Forest  (West Virginia)

This was our first stop of the trip. It's located between Morgantown and Bruceton Mills on I-68 in West Virginia.
Almost 13,000 acres of forest that you can visit to picnic, camp, hike, mountain bike and more.
Coopers Rock was named after a fugitive that hid out from the law near this beautiful outlook. He was a cooper by trade ~ thus the name Coopers Rock.
Do you know what a cooper does??

He makes barrels!

And since he was surrounded by trees in this forest he had all that he needed to make them with.

Many stone and wood structures that serve as picnic shelters and outlook posts were actually created by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) between the years 1936-1942.
The CCC began under President Roosevelt's New Deal. It provided jobs for the unemployed boys and men during the Great Depression. In exchange for thier physical work they were paid $30 a month but $25 of that went home to their parents or families.
Seventy five years later these sturdy structures are still standing and in use. Many of which are now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The kids were given small bottles of acid to test rocks with to see if they could determine what kind of rocks that they were.

Large stones are present throughout the forest, some with caves and walk ways .

Here, Mr. Fitzsimmons explains vugs to the kids.

What is a vug?

Vugs are small cavities inside rocks that are often lined with minerals that are different than the surrounding rock. Over time these minerals are removed by erosion leaving only the irregular voids behind.

We stopped to take a class photo under this rock cliff.

Lots more photos and words but I think that that will do.
I hate to bore you all too much!
Next stop (post) will be Cathedral State Park and Blackwater Falls.

**For any of you that missed my last post all of these pictures were taken on a 3 day field trip that my oldest sons Science Honors class took. We traveled to the southeast to the Smoke Hole Caverns area and spent 3 days hiking, learning and sight-seeing.
It was an AWESOME trip!**