When settlers originally came to the Powell area, they would draw plots of land; then they had five years to start living on and developing that land, Brandi Wright, the director and curator of Homesteader Museum, told visiting students on Friday.

“The last homestead was completed and drawn in December of 1949 to January of 1950,” Wright said.

She gave a tour of the museum to a group of roughly 15 Wyoming Connections Academy students and their families. The field trip was also an opportunity for the online students to socialize.

They toured a homestead house from the Garland area and another from Heart Mountain. They also looked at early farming in the area and got to go inside the caboose where students could get a feel for being train passengers.

“(Wyoming Connections is) really nice, because you don’t have to go to school and get sick, you get to see more kids, I have actually a lot more kids than I would in a brick and mortar school,” Ashley Chenoweth, a Wyoming Connections teacher  said. “And it’s really nice, because we get to stay home, we get to make our own schedule, we get to do field trips all around Wyoming and we get to invite all the kids.”

Wright’s presentation focused on early settlers who came in under the Homestead Act, including how the area was divided, effects of the Great Depression and the Heart Mountain Internment camp.

As homesteading continued you could buy a barrack from the internment camp for $1, move it to your plot of land and “you had an instant house,” she said.

Wyoming Connections Academy is an online, tuition free program founded in 2009 according to its website. The online academy is officially a distance learning program of Big Horn County School District 1 but serves students throughout the state.

Field trips are not limited to area students. One student, Izzabella Thornton, left from Casper with her aunt Jaleina Harnon that morning in order to make the trip. On their way home they planned to take a detour and see Cody.

“They really can create their own schedule that works best for them and then they can take Fridays off if they want,” Chenoweth said. “So it’s really nice, they can work on as many lessons as they want in a day, the curriculum is all provided.”

Thornton has only been attending Wyoming Connections for the last couple of months, using the program is better where she lives, “it helps when we get snowed in,” she said.

Thornton’s day is more fast paced, she said — she works on her family’s farm, goes to youth group twice a week and a children’s group to teach once a week. Her typical day with Wyoming Connections Academy takes about five hours.

Murray Chavarria, a Powell resident, has been attending Wyoming Connections for the past two and a half years, beginning in fifth grade, he said.

The stand-out for Chavarria was seeing Vali Twin Cinema’s old film projector and learning how the machine worked. The fact that the projector took two fires to light it stood out to him. Chavarria is interested in technology and its evolution, he said.

Since going to Wyoming Connections, he has gotten better grades and attends school more, he said.

His average day is about two hours of work, “maybe three depending on (the) work.”

The biggest difference for Chavarria is his wake up time. Chavarria also stays up late at night, something that was not compatible in a traditional school setting.

Now, Chavarria can wake up when he wants to.

“I actually get most of the sleep I need for school,” he said.