The Learning Centre

Welcome to the new
White Oak Leaning Centre.

The White Oak Society believes that education is a life long pursuit founded upon a need and a desire to learn. We believe that it is vital to understand our history, be knowledgeable of the natural world around us, and to be aware and respectful of all cultures.
Living history is an educational process exceptionally suited to achieving these goals and we will use it to the best of our knowledge and ability to make learning exciting, worthwhile, and fun.

[On-site Learning Centre | On-line Learning Centre | Interpretation Policies | Teachers Information

...at the White Oak Learning Centre

Experience the Spirit of the Voyageurs...
Use the fur trade era to connect our past and our present to shape our future.

Set Your Kids on Fire... For centuries fire has been a key factor in the survival and development of mankind. Every fire in history has begun from a single spark. The experiences available at White Oak Learning Centre are "sparks" that can ignite the minds of all who visit here.

Ignite Me ~The On-Site Day Program

Contact Us~ For help in firing up your kids, or to reserve the Centre for your organization's session call us at 218-246-9393 or email us

The Learning Centre Dream, A Reality

The Dining Hall, hosts special occasions such as receptions, meetings and other events for larger groups of visitors, as well as period meals, an English tea, music and song, and of course the meetings of the NWC Partners.

Upon entering the Dining Hall we are met with an all pine floor. The walls and ceiling, with their period lighting, create a gleam across the main cherry-wood table and Windsor chairs.
The trestle tables with pine benches offer invitation to sit, or gather to partake of a meal. Many memorable occasions are about to be experienced here.

The Rick Balen Reference library has many volumes and pieces of information for learning and research. It is equipped with copy machines and microfilm equipment so that our guests can research material on history and take the information home with them.

The White Oak Learning Centre is open year-round with reservations for schools and groups taken on a first-come first-served basis.

White Oak's Education Programs

The White Oak Learning Centre offers a variety of education programs for youth and adults. While our roots are in first-person presentation of history, we have branched out into programs that use history to create opportunities to learn other disciplines. We have found that living history is an exciting gateway to an array of learning activities.
The following provides a brief overview of White Oak's current educational offerings.

A jam-packed two and one-half days of exciting, eye-opening interdisciplinary experiences in the fur post during which everyone-----students, teachers, and interpreters alike-----explores the lifestyles, issues, skills, relationships, and everyday needs of living in the fur trade era. Specific areas of emphasis can be pre-arranged before your visit also.

Boozhoo - Bonjour - Hello  and Welcome   We know you'll find the White Oak residential program an exciting educational concept and join in the celebration of history, the environment, and learning. We look forward to your stay, and for being able to share with you our enthusiasm for education and life we say     Migwitch - Merci - Thanks

The program focuses on the use of historic skills and events as the core activities from which a variety of multi disciplinary learning activities can occur.
If you are doing specific activities or units at school, let us know. We can customize our activities to dovetail with your lesson plans. We want White Oak to be an extension of your classroom and our efforts a collaboration with you.

The White Oak on-site residential program is available for various lengths of stay throughout the year.

An entire day at the White Oak Fur Post crammed full of interesting demonstrations and activities presented in a station to station rotation Experiencing a day sampling the life-styles, skills and history of the fur trade era. Your students may also choose to focus intensely on one or two specific areas for more in-depth exposure, (blacksmithing, canoe building, eighteenth century manners and others) This program is presented indoors and/or outdoors.

Why White Oak Learning Centre

Minnesota Learning Standards and White Oak

A visit to White Oak is more than a fun field trip for your students. It can become an integral part of your curriculum, designed to help you meet Minnesota's new learning standards. You can leverage the excitement of a White Oak visit to generate a wealth of pre- and post-visit learning activities directly related to the entire range of standards, not just those associated with history.

Contact us to learn more on how the White Oak Learning Centre experience can energize your curriculum with the spirit of the voyageur.

School Days

Since 1990, White Oak has invited elementary school students to the fur post in Deer River, to learn "hands-on" about the fur trade era. Students spend a day at various stations where costumed interpreters provide first-person accounts of such skills as baking in a clay oven, making fire with flint and steel, and running the company store. This gives the children a look as to what a day was like for the people that lived in the 18th century and life at the fur post.

"en Derouine":  White Oak on the Road

Often it was necessary for traders to travel in the winter to the Ojibwe camps to trade. This was known by its French term - en derouine   (ahng dehr-ii-een). White Oak's modern version of derouine is taking it's School Days Program "on the road".

White Oak will bring its interpreters to a school and set up learning stations in the classrooms (in winter) or an encampment in the school yard! This is an excellent way for schools too far from Deer River to come for school days to experience first-hand the excitement of the fur trade.

Contact us or call the White Oak office 218/246-9393 for more information.

Interpretation

White Oak's interpreters travel to schools and events to present first-person interpretation of the fur trade era. Activities can range from a one hour presentation by a single interpreter to an encampment with a crew of interpreters.

For frequently asked questions Learning Centre FAQ

Learning Centre Residential Program

• Small number of participants on campus
• Individualized instruction with "no one lost in the crowd"
• Exciting, fun-filled learning activities given with a special flavor
• Direct links to achieving state learning standards
• Students fully immersed in "living history"
• "Hands-on sessions taught by instructors literally dressed for the part
• White Oak Fur Post lends "an unsurpassed feel" to the experience
  ......One of a kind setting with authentically reproduced 1798 fur post and working blacksmith shop, canoe building shed, bourgeois' quarters, company store, voyageurs' winter quarters and more
• Rick Balen Research Library and internet access
• Wide variety of class topics:
  ......1. Cultural diversity and the environment
  ......2. Wilderness living and historic living skills
  ......3. Social class and intra cultural interactions
  ......4. Economics and applied mathematics
• Ready access to mile-long Gil Quaal Nature Trail, one of the region's best nature trails
• Family style colonial cuisine
• Historical clothing for the participants as well as the instructors
• Handicapped accessibility
• Customized programming included
  ......Want to learn how to build a birch bark canoe? We can arrange it.
  ......Want to blacksmith on a bellows forge? We can do it.
  ......Want something else? Just ask !!!!
• Friendly, helpful and vibrant staff
• See White Oak Learning Facilities

Space provided courtesy of Paulbunyan Net

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