By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Good science is all about getting your hands dirty. For nearly a decade, Ellinwood science teacher Kelsie Harmon has allowed her students to do just that at the Great Salt Plains Selenite Digging Area just outside of Cherokee, Okla. Late last month, Harmon accompanied 32 seventh graders for a little digging as part of her geology unit.
"They really enjoyed it," she said. "It was something very unique for some of them. Some of them hadn't even been out of the state, so that was very cool for a handful of them. As long as the weather cooperates, every year the kids love it."
The digging area is part of the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, a site not unlike Cheyenne Bottoms where thousands of shorebirds congregate each year. Digging season is open from April 1 to Oct. 15 each year, and the buried treasure are selenite crystals, a form of gypsum that is often used by spiritual healers.
"You can't find those, actually anywhere in the world, except for there," Harmon said. "They're not worth anything for some reason, they're not very pretty. It's just something unique and a hands-on experience dealing with rocks and minerals."
Cherokee is virtually due south of Ellinwood, just inside the Oklahoma border. The class left at 7:30 a.m., and returned home around 4 p.m. The day's festivities included the annual photograph next to the Oklahoma border sign.
