Mt. Ferocious

Welcome to Clayton's "Mt. Ferocious National Park" research project. What? You've never heard of Mt. Ferocious? That's because. . .

While all the other second graders researched and presented real National Parks, Clayton's class invented their own. So when it came time for all the second graders to present their projects to the community, there was seriously a lot of confusion (especially in a neighborhood with so many foreigners - unfamiliar with the Nation's parks to begin with). I heard Clayton explaining over and over again. " No, Mt. Ferocious is not real. . . yes-yes, those are real photographs but that's actually a picture of Mt. St. Helens and the Durango train in Colorado. . . No, sorry. I don't have any information about those places." And by the time he had finally established that Mt. Ferocious is indeed fake, they had lost interest and moved on to the next display.

It's probably a good thing though. Since a train ride through the center of an active volcano, in real life, would make for an extremely dangerous National Park. Check it out:


And a super big thanks to my mom for doing most of the helping with this project. It couldn't have come at a more inconvenient time for us - due the week after Lydia was born.
Even so, Clayton's project display and knowledge about volcanoes (and trains) amazed his teachers and made us all wish there was really such a place as Mt. Ferocious National Park.

Good job Clayton! I really love your ideas. I will never forget the afternoons you spent with me in the hospital drawing, designing, and working on this (and ordering lemon cake from room service). It was slow going without a printer or any of my computer software. But with a ton of help from Grandma at home (she had no idea when she came out to help that she was signing up to do massive school projects.) You got it all done.

We are so proud of you.
.