Written and submitted by Glenn Rice, former fifth grade teacher at Cherokee Bend Elementary School.
Pictured above: Cherokee Bend students on campus in Spring 2022 learn about the history of Girl Scout Island and the courageous girls who protected it.
What a privilege and opportunity this year’s fifth grade students from Cherokee Bend have to participate in the Tremont experience. This educational environmental experience is second to none. I applaud the students, the teachers, the school, and the parents for giving these 5th graders this opportunity that they will never forget.
It was 50 years ago, March, 1972, that Cherokee Bend first sent students to Tremont. Cherokee Bend was the first school in Alabama to allow students to miss five days of school to make an environmental trip like this. Since then schools all over the state now allow students to have similar opportunities and experiences.
Being a fifth grade teacher, I was asked if I would be willing to take a group of fifth graders to Tennessee to this place called Tremont to have an outdoor experience. I said that I would, but I really wanted to take my class. Ten days later, we loaded a bus with my class of 30 fifth graders, three mom chaperones, and me. One student had a broken foot and a walking cast. Her mom was one of the chaperones.
On their first day at Tremont, Cherokee Bend students get to know Tremont staff, the campus, and each other.
There was excitement, apprehension, and students wondering what this experience would be like. As it turned out, it was a positive learning experience where the students learned not only about history and the environment, but they learned to help and support each other during their week of discovery. This was truly a week of education in the outdoor classroom where they had fun and they had fun learning.
The week we were there, it was cold, it was warm, it was wet, and it was sunny… just what you would expect for an early-spring March week in Walker Valley in the Smoky Mountains. We got to experience the mountains with no leaves on the trees and the wildflowers trying to wake up and be seen. The trails were moist and the Middle Prong was high. The streams flowing into the Middle Prong were wide, deep, and cold. I know this first hand because I fell in the stream going down to the Sinks, a trail leading off of the Lumber Ridge trail. I was wet the rest of the day!
We had a wonderful week at Tremont in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Tremont’s goal is to connect people and nature. They certainly did that with us. We came back to Mountain Brook tired but happy and thankful we had this experience. I encouraged the students to go home and talk and share their experiences so they would not forget the things they had done and learned. I still remember this trip like it was yesterday and am proud that I had my first experience at Tremont and that I can still share it today.
A Cherokee Bend student explores Girl Scout Island.
One of the children wrote what she learned that week. She said she learned that the stream was wider and deeper near the bottom of the mountain than it was at the top. She experienced that… we all did! The child with the broken foot… her cast dissolved on the all-day hike, but it was okay because it was time for it to come off anyway.
Since that first trip, I have visited Tremont over one hundred times. I made 42 five-day trips with fifth graders to the mountains, 26 of those to Tremont. I have had many wonderful experiences at Tremont, in the Middle Prong, seeing bears, Cades Cove, learning about Big Will Walker and Walker Valley, Fodderstack Mountain, and telling my favorite story about Vannie Cook who is buried in the Walker Valley Cemetery. Even with all of these wonderful experiences, I will never forget my first trip with fifth graders 50 years ago to Tennessee to this place called Tremont.
