INTRODUCTION

       

  We have worked with our penpals from Spirit Lake, Iowa. We have asked them questions to discover their city and how life is there.

Thanks to their answers and the documents they sent us we have written this travel guide. 

We hope you'll enjoy it. Don't hesitate to post comments on this blog.

CHAPTER 1 : THE HISTORY OF SPIRIT LAKE

The History of Spirit Lake

In July 1856, three brothers called Howe, Pamenta and Wheelock came to the shore of Spirit Lake and chased away the Sioux who lived there. They brought their families and settled near the shore like many other people did.

Settlers lived there for a year without problems but on March the thirteenth, 1857, the Indians attacked them. The tribe didn't have home, they were cold, and one of the white people killed the Sioux chief, Sidominadota. Run by Inkpaduta, Sidominadota's brother, they massacred the settlers. Only three women survived the war. 

The town is called Spirit Lake because the Sioux thought that the big lake called Minnewaukon or Lake of Spirit near their village was magic.

The emblem of this town is the head of an Indian, in reference to the history of the town, and our penpals told us that some people thinks it is racist.

CHAPTER 2 : LOCALIZATION

City of Spirit Lake

   

                                   
Localization/geography                          map of Spirit Lake

Spirit Lake is not actually a very big city however there are big cities not far from it. The population of Spirit Lake is only five thousand inhabitants. But, its population almost doubles, in the summer because of the tourist coming to enjoy the lakes.

There is another chain of lakes called East and West Lake Okobej. There are no mountains in Spirit Lake. It is surrounded by flat lands. 

Spirit Lake is located in Iowa and the capital of Iowa is Des Moines . Spirit Lake is situated in Dickinson country. Des Moines is a very large city. Spirit Lake is 457 miles South of the Canadian border. It is located in the North of Iowa.                                                                                                                                                      

                              

CHAPTER 3 : WEATHER IN SPIRIT LAKE

                                                                                                            





    In Spirit Lake, Winter lasts five or six months from November to March or April. It is really cold. The coldest temperatures can go down to 5° Farenheit (or -20 Celsius). Sometimes, students can't go to school because there is too much snow.

     Spring generally lasts one month; in May.

  Summer starts in June and ends in August. The hottest month is July. The summer lasts three months. The hottest temperatures are 103°farenheit  (or 39° Celsius).

  Fall only lasts two months : September and October. Spring and Fall are not as long as Summer and Winter.

CHAPTER 4 :SPORTS IN SPIRIT LAKE

 Spirit Lake : IOWA

In Summer, people in Spirit Lake swim, play baseball, they sail, practise water-skiing, they go fishing. They also ride and go tubing.

People practise water activities on the numerous lakes around Spirit Lake : East Lake, West Lake, Big Spirit, Little Spirit, Upper Gar, Lower Gar, Minnewasta, Center Lake.

In Fall, they play football, volleyball, and practise cross country.

In Winter, they can build snowforts, have snowball fights, and they go sledding down hills. They also do more traditional winter sports in Spirit Lake, like ice skating, ice fishing, snow mobile.

                    

CHAPTER 5 : LEISURE ACTIVITIES

The students of Spirit Lake like to be with friends or to ride bikes. When the weather is bad outside they like to play video games or just read.

In Spirit Lake they have an amusement park called «Arnold´s park »

Most of the time they eat fast food like Pizza Ranch, Subway, Burger King and a lot of others... they like the Ritz.

There is a cinema called  cinema 7.

They have a large perfomance center called « Sami's center ».

The musical and theatrical performances are held in Sami's center, but you can also see ballets there.

There isn't any opera house.

They have many festivals. One of the major annual festival is known as the Winter games.

People from all of the world come to Spirit Lake to participate in the activities.

There are amazing fireworks.

There are two famous museums named Art Centre and the Maritime.

CHAPTER 6 : SPORT IN SPIRIT LAKE

                          

Sports are a big part of student's lives in the United States and particularly in Spirit Lake. Many people in Spirit Lake practise many sports like football, soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, track and field, dance.

Football field

Football team

At school, a lot of sports such as baseball, soccer, wrestling, softball are practised. They have a hockey team and a football team, but they don't have any famous team. And they have a mascot, an Indian with a lot of feathers on his head. 

The mascot

 In Spirit Lake, they don't  have national sport stars, but there are some in Minnesota like Bronko Naguiski, he was a defensive tickle for Golden Gophers (football player).

Basketball team

Football team

Baseball team

CHAPTER 7 : SCHOOL

This selection deals with how school matters in our penpals' life.

We are studying the American middle and high school of our penpals.

Our penpals school name is Spirit Lake High School.

Their school mascot is an Indian head.

 

This is the logo of  Spirit Lake Highschool: the head of an Indian wearing red feathers.

Their school is very big and has many programs : Schools programs help kids to get more credit for college. Among the programs, they have sports such has football, soccer, track, etc.

They also have musical programs like bands, chorus, show choir... , Art programs like painting, pottery, drawing and independant art.

In middle school, kids are about 11 to 14 years old . In high school they are about 13 toi 18 yaers old.

Here, we can see Sami's center 

Their holidays are quite similar to ours :

They have the whole three months of summer(June, July and August) off for summer break. They get Thanksgiving in November, Christmas break in December, and Easter break in Spring.

Their mandatory classes for freshman year is Health, Algebra, physical education 'class), 2 extra credit classes, and Core Academy.

Core Academy is a two hour class; three teachers are in charge of this subject.

One deals with science, another one with writing, and the last one teaches social studies.

The three teachers take turns teaching their part of lesson.

Spirit Lake football ground