BELLE — Between stopping at stations on Oct. 23 during Missouri Day, Maries County R-2 teacher Becky Lansford asked her third graders to choose something they wanted to remember.

“Think about your takeaway,” she told them. “What are you gonna take away?”

With apple butter, a live mule, cotton candy, stone tools and an iron making lesson among the attractions held at the track behind the high school, students had plenty of answers to consider.

The event brought children together with educators, volunteers and state representatives who shared Missouri’s history, heritage and natural resources through demonstrations and conversation. At each station, students had another opportunity to ask questions and connect what they were learning with something they could examine for themselves.

Lansford said those questions continued as her group moved between presentations. Asking children to identify a takeaway gave them a chance to explain what interested them before heading to the next stop.

Their curiosity drew praise from presenters, too. At the apple butter station, Ronnie Stockton remarked on the students’ manners and willingness to ask questions.

“They’ve all been well behaved,” Stockton said. “They’ve been asking questions and learning.”

There, a discussion about two bushels of apples offered a glimpse into a tradition familiar to many local families and churches. Volunteers explained that apples yield different amounts of finished apple butter from year to year and discussed making and selling it.

It was a practical exercise on what life was like in Missouri before the world moved on to more modern conveniences. Sharing these old skills with the next generation, who may just be beginning to discover them, helps keep history alive.

At another station, Kendra Swee of Maramec Spring Park asked students to think through what it took to turn raw materials into iron at the old ironworks.

Her explanation began with the essentials; a furnace, fuel, minerals and a way to produce enough heat. Questions about those requirements led students back to resources found in the Ozarks.

“So we made our own fuel source by cutting the trees and turning it into charcoal,” Swee explained.

Spring water provided power for another part of the operation.

“The water from the spring turned the water wheels, and the water wheels pumped the air into the side,” she said.

Swee explained that forcing air into the blast furnace helped generate the heat needed for iron production. Students also examined hematite as she discussed its iron content and introduced limestone as another material used in the process.

State Reps. Bennie Cook, R-143, and Bruce Sassmann, R-61, also participated, sharing lessons about Missouri and its natural resources.

“What is the state reptile?” Cook asked one group.

Students offered a succession of guesses, including a bullfrog, a lizard and a snake, as they worked toward the answer — the three-toed box turtle.

Cook also pointed students toward information about famous Missourians and activities in their take-home materials, giving them more to explore after the presentation.

Elsewhere, Rep. Bruce Sassmann and wife Jan Sassmann introduced children to Missouri Department of Conservation reading materials. They explained how students could receive a free magazine at home by completing a subscription card with a parent’s help.

Stories about wildlife and places around Missouri give children something new to investigate each month. They also mentioned an additional attraction for young readers — the magazine would arrive in their own mailbox, addressed to them by name.

At the cotton candy station, Jeannine Branstetter read Fairy Floss: The Sweet Story of Cotton Candy, written by Ann Ingalls and illustrated by Migy Blanco, and handed out individual packages of cotton candy. The book connected the familiar treat to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, with another Missouri connection through Kansas City author Ingalls. Branstetter, whose daughter teaches in Belle, said this was her second year helping with Missouri Day.

Preparing her station included researching the book and getting individual packages of cotton candy for the children. The treat accompanied a lesson that had already made an impression on students elsewhere at the event — the unexpected involvement of a dentist in cotton candy’s development.

Other stops brought children close to a live mule and introduced them to stone tools. During the tool presentation, students were invited to feel an object as the presenter, Michael Stockton, discussed the materials used to make it.

Across the stations, adults shared what they knew while children answered questions, made guesses and offered observations. An occurrence that once would have been a common sight in Missouri during any day of the week now has its own special day to celebrate our shared history.