Doin' it for the Kids

Construction continues apace today as the crew puts up the roof deck ... we're going to be indoors pretty soon!

Yesterday I wrote of school kids disembarking at the Museum. We get about 5,000 participants in our admission-free School Tour Program each year and another 2,500 who arrive with parents, grandparents, et al. We conder the Museum to be an adjunct to what goes on in classrooms all across the region, including public, private, and home schools. With some serious generosity from Boise, Inc.'s Wallula Mill, Blue Mountain Community Foundation, J.L. Stubblefield Trust, Bonnie Braden Trust, and the Pacific Power Foundation, we can offer tours of the Museum to schools without cost to them beyond bus drivers and gas. Not bad for your neighborhood non-profit heritage Museum!

Heritage is a shared experience providing a foundation on which to build for the future. By connecting children with their heritage, great things happen. Children gain a sense of place and belonging in their community and in the process their self-esteem grows. Heritage education helps children become fully integrated, productive members of society. Fort Walla Walla Museum supports the educational process and inspires children to learn more about their heritage.

Learning takes place on many levels in the life of a child. Schools perform exceptional work in many areas, but the difficulty of making history come alive for students can be both costly and logistically daunting. A school trip to Fort Walla Walla Museum can be particularly useful in supporting classroom-based assessments (CBA). Children can see and touch aspects of the past that books and lectures cannot address. Utilizing the Museum’s free Teacher’s Guide, teachers may prepare students for a visit and find activities in multiple disciplines for follow-up learning.

Through ongoing surveys of visiting students, the Museum has learned that 86% have never visited a museum before. Further, 82% want to return with their families. Beginning with the new Entrance, a ‘Kid’s Museum’ will be interwoven within the larger Museum. Children who can connect with the region’s past will feel a sense of belonging to their communities, develop healthy self-esteem, and become involved in something greater than themselves. Engaging, interactive, fun, and seamlessly educational hands-on stations children identify by spotting “Maury the Mule,” a friendly, cartoon graphic clad in overalls, red 'long-handles,' and straw hat signaling where children can get involved with the past.

Today's photos show the Museum's 'Maury the Mule' icon, the roof deck being built over the Grand Hall, and our wonderful Docent Vi Jones (left) and teacher Tamar Lundsen with students from Othello's Hiawatha School.

What Goes Up, Must be Filled

The construction gang continues to put roof trusses into place today, so I thought I'd address just what is going to be accomplished when the building is ready for public inspection. We hope to complete construction by late October or early November ... then the hard part of filling up the space begins.

For the past umpteen years, visitors to the Museum have entered through a chain-link fence gate in the back of Fort Walla Walla Park. That sort of fencing is wonderful for keeping people out, but not so great at welcoming people in. Some years back, when our perimeter fence was topped with barbed wire, the look was reminiscent of an artifact prison. Hmmm ... I think we can do better.

The new entrance building will have its own parking lot close by the front door. This will be a great boon to our older and physically challenged visitors. Further, while the current park road in no way resembles the roundabout near Arlington Park in Virginia, having our thousands of school kids disembark their busses where traffic moves is not the ideal plan. The parking lot has been designed to accomodate the turning radius of a school bus, so that kids may be delivered right to the front door; they will assemble indoors for the introductory orientation, as opposed to the outdoors-in-all-weather scenario we use now.

The look of the new building's entrance will appear like a blockhouse from 'fort days.' Upon entering, the experience will begin immediately, with displays to the right and left, as well as above. Inside, to the right, will be an orientation theater that provides some background into Walla Walla as "the cradle of northwest history" and a bit about the Museum a visitor is about to enter. This is planned to be a no-cost experience ... if a visitor wishes to tour the Museum, payment can be made opposite the theater at the Museum Store.

I'll tell you more about this in the next few sdays, time permitting. Today's photos show some of the ongoing construction, as well as the water truck that mitigates dust problems and allows for vehicle clean-up before the rigs travel on city streets. There's also architect Jim Stenkamp's rendering of the new Entrance.

A reminder that fund-raising is ongoing and your help is greatly appreciated. You can simply send a check earmarked for the project or do so online through our web site at www.fortwallawallaqmuseum.org. The past is ours to save!

All Over the World

Anne, our Operations Assistant, tells me that last Sunday looked like "International Day" at Fort Walla Walla Museum, a regular 'United Nations' of visitation. We love that! Each year we get visitors from, on average, about 30 foriegn countries; last year we welcomed travelers from 42 distant ports of call.

I leafed through our guest register book yesterday, a much handier task this year with the absence of its former location in Exhibit Hall 1 and its new home in our Headquarters. We had visitors from Cambodia, two different cities in Sweden, and Hong Kong that day, along with folks from California, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, and, of course, Washington.

A couple years back, we had a family, the Becks, visit us from Germany and however unlikely it seemed, they knew as much about the Museum as anyone could who had never been here before. Students of the Internet age, they'd researched us and regional history thoroughly before embarking on their trip. Their vacation began in Portland and consisted of a tour of the west, heading across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana before concluding their trek in Yellowstone Park.

It's amazing that world travelers find us here in Walla Walla. Yes, you can fly here, but only from Seattle, and not always conveniently. Yes, we're on a US highway, but it's not the same as the Interstate system: we are not on the way to anywhere for most folks. 100 miles west of here, the highway begins a twisting, tortuous route over the Bitterroot Mountains that takes you to Lolo, Montana and Lewis & Clark's famed 'Traveler's Rest.' To our west lie the Tri-CIties and the source of much of our visitation, but only 100,000 or so folks reside in the four communities that make up the Tri-Cities. South from here, state route 125 becomes Oregon Highway 11 and connects us to Pendleton, which is on the east-west Interstate 80. The old joke of 'you can't get there from here' isn't quite true of Walla Walla, but the flavor of the sentiment lingers on the palate.

Nevertheless, our international visitors continue to arrive from all over the world. Like all of our visitors, they are most welcome and we are more than pleased to share our fabulous heritage with them. Today's photos include from top down: the John King family from Wales by Thailand, with their Walla Walla friend; the Beck family from Germany; high school kids from Sasayama (our Sister City), Japan; Rotarians from Ghana; and the Astons from Northern Ireland.

Reach for the Sky!

In the days of the proverbial, if not literal, "Old West," bad guys were forever saying, "Reach for the Sky!" Well, we're not the bad guys, just the protector's of the region's heritage, but we have our own version of that classic expression.

Our building project is showing definitive signs of growth and progress. We are both literally and figuratively reaching for the sky. After our slightly late construction start, we have more than made up for lost time. Late last week, we saw some sonstruction on what our architect refers to as the 'mezzanine level,' a sort of middle level betweeen the first and second floors.

This week, we've seen roof trusses go up and now we have at least the skeletal outline of the building's 3-D configuration. By the end of the week, the building will look pretty much like the final look, except for the 'blockhouse' effect of the entrance proper.

What Grows Around, Comes Around

Agriculture has been the region's economic mainstay for almost as long as anyone has been writing about the region. If history is defined (narrowly) as the written record, then we begin our saga with Lewis & Clark. Not much agriculture can be expected of travelers, but the next Euro-Americans to follow, the fur traders, were assigned the task of procuring their own food. When the powers that be declared the boys at Fort Nez perces/Fort Walla Walla at the mouth of the Walla Walla River were a little too profligate with their trading with local Indian pople, they received orders feed themselves ... how about a garden?

Some of the Hudson's Bay Company men took Indian wives and retired in the region, building cabins in the area called Frenchtown just west of where Walla Walla is today. Among the crops they grew were grapes for wine making, according to local historian Sam Pambrun, whose family roots go back that far.

The missionaries of the region were perhaps the first commercial farmers, though it's hard to imagine the HBC chaps not trading their produce for something. Marcus & Narcissa Whitman actively sold crops to pioneers from the Oregon Trail. That enterprise ended rather abruptly in 1847, maybe the only time agriculture failed to make a go of it around here.

Following the Indian Wars of the 1850s, the US Army moved in to the neighborhood. Feeding the troops and their horses was an opportunity to make a buck and a few hardy souls ventured into the region to do that. The Army kept a hay ranch in the foothillls of the Blue Mountains (up from Dixie, WA, if I recall correctly) to feed their horses in the winter. It was the Fort that attracted ever more farmers to the region, as well as the near-holy growing conditions.

As gold was discovered up on the Colville, Orofino, and the Boise Basin, and with the Army here to keep the peace, agriculture began to bloom. Nurserymen and orchardists began to ply their trades and wheat was becoming increasingly important. Sleepy little 'Steptoeville,' the community growing around the cantonment at Mill Creek crossing where what is now First & Main Streets downtown, officially became Walla Walla 150 years ago.

Soon, wheat became 'king.' Thereafter, other crops became important like asparagus, peas, and onions, and a major cannery industry grew up. Commercial orchards were next in line. Now we have wine grapes, so perhaps we've come full circle. The Fort outlived its usefulness, but the VA medical facility is still a major employer in town, sharing the grounds of the former military reservation with us and the other entities of Fort Walla Walla Park.

Ah, grapes ... and the wine they produce. This region is unvelievably blessed when it comes to producing deep red wines like Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. For those who imbibe, an opportunity to support the Museum has come to fruition that involves the tipping of a glass, or, at least, the purchase of a bottle. Fort Walla Walla Cellars is offering a special limited release of its 2006 Walla Walla Valley Merlot for just $32/bottle (plus tax). 30% of the retail price will be donated to Museum operations. Wine Spectator magazine has awarded a 90-point rating to this varietal, making it well worth your time and the price. I tasted it yesterday ... it's really good! The tasting room where you may purchase the wine is located at the corner of Main and Spokane Streets in the heart of downtown.

Today's pics include some gents from the Italian Heritage Association harvesting the Museum's vineyard a few years ago for IHA's annual 'Grape Stomp' -they picked about 300#s that year; a photo of the Black Prince (aka 'Cinseault") grapes from our vineyard... they make good wine and great table grapes; an image of the 1820s era Hudson's Bay Company Fort Walla Walla (once described as 'the Gibraltar of the Columbia') that is is Fort Walla Walla Cellars logo; a bottle of Cliff Kontos & Jim Moyer's wine; and an urban wheat wheat harvest, across the street from the Museum, as seen from our vineyard last year ... that may be the last harvest from that location as development ... a.k.a. progress ... is occurring.

Hurrah for the Boat People!

A number of years ago, Fort Walla Walla Museum began receiving visitors from the Columbia River cruise tours. We started referring to these wonderful people as 'boat people,' something of a joke as they do not in any way resemble one's classic idea of those real, most unfortunate, sojourners. The joke became short hand, so now we when someone is schelepping around the large coffee urn that we can expect 'boat people' that morning.

We recently received some good news, in that CruiseWest, one of the longer-lived cruise lines, will 'tie up' at the Museum through the summer. This is a change from the usual, as the ships normally ply the Columbia only in spring and fall; in summer they could be found in the Inland Passage wending their way to Alaska. For those who don't know, the cruise companies dock in Pasco and bus their clients to Walla Walla for the day.

In speaking with Troy Campbell, the company's Senior Manager of Product Development, I learned that CruiseWest's original intent was to keep the morning agenda purposely open to allow clients a variety of options. Ahem, said the clients, we prefer to visit Fort Walla Walla Museum! We're pretty happy about that ... earlier this month I checked our guest register book and found that we'd logged visitors from 17 states and two countries the first week in May. Much of that variety comes courtesy of the cruise tours, whose clientele comes from all parts of the planet to float through our back yard.

The community benefits from this increase in tourism, too. First of all, these folks are the best ambassadors money can't buy. Invariably, they seem to greatly enjoy a trip to the Museum as well as the community. You can be sure that when they get home, they'll be telling all their friends about "the town so nice they named it twice." Secondly, the group (typically numbering 50-80 people), stop for lunch at a local restaurant (Bob Parrish's Backstage Bistro this summer) and two wineries (Annete Bergevin & Amber Lane's Bergevin Lane and Gordon Venneri & Myles Anderson's Walla Walla Vintners). This is the best that tourism can do, bringing people from outside the community in to spend money.

Perhaps the best part is meeting people from so many backgrounds. Walla Walla is turning into the crossroads of America ... the reason they like it here so much might best be summed by Troy: "The whole town is so gosh-darned nice!"

Today's photos show a bus laden with cruise tourists unloading at the Museum and volunteer Rod Hahn explaining the workings of our Blacksmith Shop to interested visitors. If your a Walla Wallan, you may have noticed Rod on your recent water bill inclusion. Here's a hat tip to Carol at the City for helping us inform the neighborhood of what's good about our town!

All Over the World!

Saturday was Farmer's Market Day and for those in the know, it was a perfect day to either be a Walla Wallan or to be visiting here. The best the community has to offer was on display and for little to no expense.

The Balloon Stampede offered up more than a dozen hot air balloons into a clear blue sky. Watching costs nothing! If you were up early enough to take that in, then a trip downtown to the Farmer's Market was also in order. There is no expense to that outing, either, unless you choose to buy early season vegetable like asparagus and 'salad' onions, or feed yourself on omelets, bbq, Italian fare, bakery, and more, or feed your soul on the music offered up (for free!) at the corner of Main & 4th (catty corner from the historic Dacres Hotel, the site of the Stine Hotel, once-largest brick hotel in all the region outside San Francisco).

It was a fabulous sunny day at the Market and people turned out in droves to enjoy the weather, each other, and the friendly ambience that has developed there. It's my job to pass out '$1 Off for All Adults in Party' coupons, so that as many people as want to can enjoy Fort Walla Walla Museum. By 1:00 pm when the Market generally begins shutting down, there were still 100s of people in the area. In all, I distributed 261 passes ... by my reckoning, that involves meeting close to 800 people. My pal Don, our Operations Manager at the Museum told me Sunday that we'd received quite a few passes back already, as well as similar coupons passed out by our volunteers at the Balloon Stampede. Cool! While we need to turn a dime to pay for all that the Museum offers, it should never be the cost that keeps people from a visit. I'm pleased we can make it so easy.

To that end, we give out quite a few free passes during the year, too. We partner with the schools to make sure that kids from economically challenged families get a view of their heritage. We also contribute free passes to a cross section of the community's social agencies like YWCA, Christian Aid Society, Children's Home Society, and more.

Underlying all this is the belief that people who are connected to the community's heritage make better citizens ... imagine voting without knowing the roots of this or any community: the past is our only roadmap to the future. When we include the community's children, we're talking about tomorrow's leaders--we'd like them to be fully versed in what makes the town tick, right? And for the many kids who arrived only recently with their families, this is their heritage, too. When you live here, you get to stake a claim in the past, because what we are today is what has been building for generations.

BTW, I met a couple from the UK, as they called it, home being "north of London a bit." I also noted in our guest register book that we'd received visitors at the Museum from 17 states and two countries in the first week of May ... isn't that astounding? People come from all over the world just to see what we keep in our backyard!

On the construction front, the crew brought in a giant crane Friday and began moving roof trusses from outside the security fence to inside the growing structure. It's my guess that we'll see the trusses going up this week, another benchmark to be noted along the way to completion of our new Entrance. I missed getting a crane pic, but won't miss out on the roof going up!

Today's photos are from the Farmers' Market on Saturday. The boy pictured is attempting to make the 'Jacob's Ladder' toy work. The simple device is an engineering marvel. The toys we bring to such venues are truly 'kid magnets;' I like to tell them that these are the "Game Boys" of the 1880s. They offer great hand-eye coordination development, as well as 'small-motor skills' development. The second picture shows why we celebrate Mother's Day.

Yonder Stampedes the Balloons!

Look! Up in the sky! Today is the opening of Walla Walla's 35th annual Balloon Stampede and a more glorious morning for it is hard to imagine. Crystal clear blue skies are the order of the day and if the breeze dies down just a little, the heavens will fill with an almost science-fiction looking display. In years past, I've witnessed nearly two dozen balloons up at the same time.

The Stampede has been a Walla Walla institutiuon for a long time now and Fort Walla Walla Museum will have a presence there. It's another outreach opportunity for us to be in the community, instead of sitting back on our heels waiting for the community to come to us. As people come to town for this event from near and far, we can put into practice our plan for the year: let's entice those folks who are already here to visit the Museum.

I'll be at the Farmer's Market again on Saturday, so come on down before you head out to the Fairgrounds for the Stampede ... you can enjoy all of the best that Wallla Walla has to offer this weekend when you roll a Museum visit with Sunday's Living History performance into your activities list. Walla Walla County Court Services Supervior Mike Bates portrays Legendary mountain man and US Marshal Joe Meek at 2:00 pm on Sunday afternoon.

What a grand weekend!

Today's pictures feature an image of mountain man Joe Meek courtesy of Michael Schaub's "Malachite's Big Hole," Mike Bates portraying Joe Meek as a US Marshall at the Museum's Precott Jail, and Jerry Cummins' hot air balloon at a recent museum event.

Learning Lessons

nine

Flu bug got you down? Not yet, maybe ... I understand there are now 9 reported cases in Washington state today and several possible cases have been reported in Umatilla County just across the border in Oregon. Swine flu is here, the latest progression in Mexico's killer outbreak.

We learn from history, our only roadmap to the future, but one must be careful of the lessons taken from history. A mere 91 years go, Spanish flu crept into our outpost of the realm. The first reported cases appeared in the Spokane Area on September 27, 1918, but ten days earlier, the illness appeared among recruits from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who arrived sick at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Another alarm came September 23, when 10,000 people assembled for a National Guard parade. The Guard's medical officer noted a few cases of flu, but said there was little to worry over. In two days, the malady was of epidemic proportion in Seattle. Soon it reached Spokane and across the state. Public assemblies were cancelled throughout the state and schools closed. By late October, masks were mandatory for anyone who went outdoors.

The flu remained in the state until spring, 1919, when it vanished as fast as it came. In the process, nearly 3/4 of a million people died in the United States alone. Thousands died in Washington, an immense total considering Washington's population at the time was only one million.

Can it happen again? Probably ... flu pandemics are with us. Will they be so devestating? Not as likely. Advances in hygiene, healthcare, medicine, and detection may prevent the high death rates. Preparedness comes into play, too. 90 years ago, no one took care until the disease was already rampant; witness how much has already been done since news broke in Mexico just a few weeks ago and well before the flu reached the Inland Northwest.

Wash your hands, try not to touch your eyes, nose and mouth, and do your best to keep others from catching what you may have. We learn from history and this is a great application of that lesson.

Today's pics are scenes from 'the day,' one of St. Mary's Hospital at night, another with the Sisters of Providence at work in St. Mary's, one of Walla Walla (General) Hospital, and one of St. Mary's fire in 1915.

Market Matters

Saturday at the Farmer's Market went swimmingly well ... it seemed that way, perhaps, because of the weather, but nevertheless was a fun day. Rather than set up our less-than-waterproof canopy in the pending rain, I chose to take my shade umbrella from my home barbecue. A wiser fellow might have chosen a raincoat over a hoodie, but as I enjoy rainy weather I did not suffer lasting adverse affects.

Going to the Market is a good time, largely because of the opportunity to meet so many people. I distributed '$1 Off for All Adults in Party' coupons, which is an easy way to make contact with complete strangers. All in all, I gave away 233 coupons and spoke to more than 600 people.

As this was a 'wine weekend,' one could expect to meet people from near and far and that was the case: Portland, Vancouver, WA & Vancouver, B.C., Tacoma, Yakima, Puget Sound region ... as well as loads of my neighbors and soon-to-be friends. I did miss seeing my ol' pal Deeson ... he's moved away. He was one of the many kids who stop by to try the cup-and-ball game, to spin the top or fathom out the 'Jacob's Ladder.' I like to tell the kids that these were the 'Game Boys' of the 1880s.

The Market is also interesting because of the neighborliness of the vendors. People are forever offering help with setting up, schlepping merchandise from car to canopy, and politiely asking if what they intend to do in their space will impact what the neighbors have in mind with theirs. It was good to see so many of the 'old faithful' in place and heartening to see so many new vendors. There was a surprising amount of early season vegetation for sale ... I like that especially because it represents the legacy of the past for me. It used to be farmstands in the countryside, where the farm wife and farm kids would tend enourmous vegetable gardens, then sell the excess to their city cousins out for a jaunt in the country.

The music was great, the neighbors wonderful and the people I met were gracious and interested in the Museum. As noon rolled around, I got hungry, so had my choice between bbq, Italian fare, omelets, sweet onion sausages, gyros, and many other delectables. As you can see, I'm looking forward to next Saturday, as well. See you there!

Soldiering in the days of Fort Walla Walla

This weekend's Living History performance (Sunday, May 3, at 2:00 pm) features local musician Joel Fitts portraying Fort Walla Walla soldier John Singleton.

Singleton was an Irishman who came to Walla Walla in 1857 to be a soldier at Fort Walla Walla. he nearly lost his life in the disastrous Battle of Steptoe Butte under the command of Lt. Col. Edward J. Steptoe, for whom Walla Walla was originally named. The community that grew around the temporary fort near the intersection of First and Main Streets in what is now the downtown area was originally known as "Steptoeville."

Singleton’s wife, also Irish, followed him here, and purchased a pre-emption claim in Walla Walla from Captain Pierce, who used the money to open the first mines in Idaho. Pierce’s actions set off a gold rush that made Walla Walla a boom town in the 1860’s. Local Indian people, the Nez Perce, called on the Fort to help protect them from the large influx of miners.

Singleton retired from the army in 1861, and he and his wife lived and farmed for the rest of their lives in Walla Walla.

The story of the military in the region is now more than 150 years old, as last year was the sesquicentennial anniversary of the opening of the 'permanent' fort on the grounds where the Wainwright VA facility is today. You can see some of the 1858 officers quarters on the back road of the facility, though the exteriors do not look as they originally did.

Maintaining the old buildings of the medical center is not the primary function of the VA and I believe they'd appreciate being out of that business. Nevertheless, the structures represent the bulk of Washington State's pre-Civil War architecture and are the historic legacy of the modern city of Walla Walla. What to do? Everything costs money, including preservation activities at museums, and no one seems to have much to part with these days. In the meantime, the buildings suffer from neglect and exposure to the elements. The VA is anticipating some investment in new facilities on the site and perhaps through that the community can take charge of the old structures.

Got a good idea? Let's hear it!

Today's photos show Joel Fitts as John Singleton playing in the Oregon Trail Band, which will also be here on Sunday afternoon. They play popular 19th century music preceding the Living History program every first and third Sunday through our season. While Fitts no longer plays with the Band, he is an accomplished musician and can be heard at various venues around town with his friends in The Rogues. Another image shows the original adobe blocks beneath the more modern exterior of one of the officers quarters. The map shows Oregon & Washington Territories and the black-and-white image shows the Fort in 1862.