It's one thing to learn history in school and another to learn your history.

St. Joseph fourth graders are learning their history in quite a modern way and finding out why their own city is so important to America.

The Oregon-California Trails Association is traveling countrywide with educational material that includes history on the Pony Express, but St. Joseph gets special attention.

"This is the one school district in all of America in which every fourth grader will receive a copy of both books and each classroom will receive a copy of the map," said Oregon-California Trails Association Manager, Travis Boley.

Lake Contrary 4th grade teacher, Beth Gregory adds, "I think the kids are really going to love this history unit. It's something that they can relate to and living in St. Joseph is a great opportunity to be able to learn so much about what happens here."

The material is available in workbook form, on the internet and as a movie, in which 24 teenagers traveled the Oregon Trail for two weeks.

"We outfitted them with wagons, outfitted them with ox and mules and horses and took them across Wyoming and Oregon primarily, filmed what happened," explains Boley.

The film, In Pursuit of a Dream, is getting it's finishing touches and a television deal is in the works with high hopes.

"Probably going to be talking to HBO really soon. said Boley. "Originally we thought PBS, but HBO, we think, is a better market, better vehicle for us because they're a subsidiary of the same company that owns Scholastic, which, of course, distributes educational materials all across the country, so we really want to work in partnership with them."

Boley, has a personal connection with the material.

He's a former Pony Express Museum Director.

The entire project was done with grants and monetary gifts, the first gift being $100,000, and has been four years in the making all in one hope.

"Creating that next generation of people that will care about preserving our history," said Boley.

You can find the association's interactive map and more at www.octa-trails.org/In-Pursuit-of-a-Dream/index.html .