In a Walla Walla history class I occasionally teach at Walla Walla Community College, I refer to regional Indian people gathering in the area where The Dalles, Oregon is today. Because it was a major trading point for Coastal, Great Basin, Plains and Columbia Basin tribes, I've referred to it as 'mall of America' to help get the point across: ... people came from all over to "buy, sell, swap, or trade" for those things they couldn't readily get closer to home.
Later history proved to be much the same, in that pioneers from all over the country wound up here rather than elsewhere. We seemed to attract a fair amount of immigration from all around the globe, too, as testified to by our local Italian heritage (three cheers for the Walla Walla Sweet Onion!), Die Russecke (Germans from Russia), and many others up to and including the present.
We seem to be carrying on that tradition at the Museum ... in just the past week, we've received travelers from Belgium, England, France, Austria, Germany, Australia, and Egypt as well as visitors from California, Idaho, Oregon, Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin, New York, Indiana, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Montana, Iowa, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and, of course, Washington. Not bad for a week: seven countries and 23 states!
Each year we set ourselves an unofficial goal of receiving visitors from all 50 states. At this writing, we have only Mississippi left to record. That's sort of odd, in that in recent years chalking up visitation fro the relatively low population states from the distant northeast (Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island) has been the hardest. This year, the 'final four' were North Dakota, Kansas, West Virginia, and Mississippi. We also manage to record guests from 30 countries on average every year ... last year we set a record at 42.
If you pay attention to economics, these are important statistics. Visitors to the commmunity spend an average of $206 per person (according to Tourism Walla Walla's "black box" surveys). That's a lot of income into our region, which gets passed along about eight times before taxes make it disappear. Think of all that sales tax supporting streets, police, fire departments and more!
Construction progress: Yale Glass, under the supervision of general contractor Op & Seibold, installed glass in the back door and its adjacent windows. It looks pretty cool! Also, the final surface of the parking lot was laid and rolled.
Today's photos include, from the top: Operations Assistant Anne signs a beam in the new Entrance, inslide looking out at the new back door, a tour group from Walla Walla Community College learns about the blacksmith shop; and a Columbia River cruise tour bus delivers passengers to the Museum. I've also included a little video showing the parking lot work, below.
Later history proved to be much the same, in that pioneers from all over the country wound up here rather than elsewhere. We seemed to attract a fair amount of immigration from all around the globe, too, as testified to by our local Italian heritage (three cheers for the Walla Walla Sweet Onion!), Die Russecke (Germans from Russia), and many others up to and including the present.
We seem to be carrying on that tradition at the Museum ... in just the past week, we've received travelers from Belgium, England, France, Austria, Germany, Australia, and Egypt as well as visitors from California, Idaho, Oregon, Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin, New York, Indiana, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Montana, Iowa, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and, of course, Washington. Not bad for a week: seven countries and 23 states!
Each year we set ourselves an unofficial goal of receiving visitors from all 50 states. At this writing, we have only Mississippi left to record. That's sort of odd, in that in recent years chalking up visitation fro the relatively low population states from the distant northeast (Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island) has been the hardest. This year, the 'final four' were North Dakota, Kansas, West Virginia, and Mississippi. We also manage to record guests from 30 countries on average every year ... last year we set a record at 42.
If you pay attention to economics, these are important statistics. Visitors to the commmunity spend an average of $206 per person (according to Tourism Walla Walla's "black box" surveys). That's a lot of income into our region, which gets passed along about eight times before taxes make it disappear. Think of all that sales tax supporting streets, police, fire departments and more!
Construction progress: Yale Glass, under the supervision of general contractor Op & Seibold, installed glass in the back door and its adjacent windows. It looks pretty cool! Also, the final surface of the parking lot was laid and rolled.
Today's photos include, from the top: Operations Assistant Anne signs a beam in the new Entrance, inslide looking out at the new back door, a tour group from Walla Walla Community College learns about the blacksmith shop; and a Columbia River cruise tour bus delivers passengers to the Museum. I've also included a little video showing the parking lot work, below.
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