Hi everyone. This week, my family took a trip to Massachusetts. While we were there, we decided to stop at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site. It was the first national armory, started under George Washington's command in 1794. I decided to do their Junior Ranger program to learn more about their site.



The machine behind me in this photo is a lathe, which was used to make muskets. The Springfield armory made 300,000 muskets during the Civil War- up to 1,000 muskets per day! The site was pretty interesting, but it was a bit scary to be around all the different weapons.



There were so many different kinds of muskets to learn about. Luckily, the rangers made the program fun. I did a word search and a few worksheets about the armory. I was proud to earn my Junior Ranger badge! If you want to learn more about Springfield Armory, check out their website at http://www.nps.gov/spar!