Much of import happened while I was away yesterday! Fort Walla Walla Museum plies the grants market several times each year and we were rewarded with an announcement that one of those 'asks' had been acknowledged. It was a national-level grant that will help us move forward with some of the inside, visitor-visible aspects of Phase I construction.
Exhibit Hall I was emptied of all its various and sundry trasures over the winter and will soon be demolished (maybe starting today?). Among the exhibits housed in it was our life-size Lewis & Clark diorama. The scene depicted involved three mannequins representing Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Yellept, a headman of the Wallah Wallah people. They are in the midst of a gift exchange, Cap't. Clark's military saber for Yellept's "eligant white horse," as it was described in the journals. Behind it stood a mural representing Wallula Gap, just south of where the Walla Walla River enters the Columbia. Much of that exhibit was re-displayed in our Headquarters for this season, but we had to bid adieu to the mural.
In the new Entrance building about to arise phoenix-like from the demolished Exhibit Hall I, the diorama will be re-created. We have had preliminary discussion with a local artist of renown and acclaim to produce a new mural with seasonal coloring more appropriate to the actual time frame depicted, as well as a new view of the Gap from the far bank of the Columbia River where stood Yellept's village. As a whole, the scene will be more historically accurate, and colorwise, more pleaseing to the eye. Thanks to the new grant, we shall be able to proceed with the plan.
Stay tuned! Big things are under way!!
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