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.

Lost in Time (but not in space)

Here's something to wrap your mind around today.

It's all about the past, right? That's what most folks assume when thinking about or visiting a heritage museum like Fort Walla Walla Museum. After all, that's the point, to see how things were done in bygone years.

While taking care of the past is among our primary duties ... "preserving and sharing" is in our mission statement ... we also must consider the future. While preserving congers visions of forever, perpetuity, and everlasting, we don't know how long forever actually will be. For us, looking down the road about 200 years is the best we can do given current budgets and technologies. We keep the lion's share of our artifacts in climate-controlled areas and are working to do that with much of the rest of our more than 42,000 (and growing) collection.

Somethings just won't work indoors. the 17 buildings in our pioneer settlement come to mind first, one of which, the Ransom Clark Cabin) is among the oldest structures in the state dating to the 1850s. For that building, periodic maintenance including log oiling, re-chinking, and roof replacement is what we're capable of doing. We hope that in 200 years, new ways of taking care of things will allow our grandchildren's grandchildren to gain some perspective through that window into the past.

In the meantime, there's the present. There isn't much point in preserving the past for future generations if no one cares about it today. We do our best to keep the public informed about our new exhibits, events, programs, and the importance of staying in contact with our shared heritage.

So there you have it ... we take care of the past for the sake of the future all the while informing the present about why it's all important. Whew! That's a brain-bender for sure ... fortunately, it's a lot of fun for us and we hope you think so, too. Today's pics represent past (the Ransom Clark Cabin), present (an urban wheat harvest across the road from the Museum in 2008), and future (an artist's idea of a city in the future).

Building on a Firm Foundation

This is our 42nd season of service to the community from the ridge atop Fort Walla Walla Park. We are fortunate to to be the beneficiaries of 50 years hard work from those who first built the place we love. Their selfless dedication is a monument to perserverance and pride of community.

As we undertake our expansion project, it's interesting to know that the Exhibit Hall our founders brought forth, when all the numbers are counted, may be re-used or recycled to the tune of nearly 95% of volume. A week or so ago as the building came down, all the concrete blocks and the pad were hauled away to be crushed. Earlier this week we saw the return of the crushed rock and saw it spread over the area where a new pad will be poured before too long.

What we'll end up with is a new building built literally on the firm foundation we received from our own pioneers, the folks who built this great place. Call it a hat tip or a salute, but we're thrilled at being able to do something so 'green' and at the same time remember our past and carry it into the future!

You can see a little more of the construction and other video clips at http://www.youtube.com/user/FortWallaWallaMuseum

Enjoy!

Volunteer Day

Tomorrow is the day Fort Walla Walla Museum hosts its annual volunteer orientation meeting. The Museum survives (really) because of the efforts of more than 400 volunteers ... we truly could not do all that we do without their many, varied and wonderful talents. A number of those volunteers are once-a-year participants in our special events. Last year we had nearly 100 historical re-enactors at Fort Walla Walla Days. Day to day in the season, we use the services of a smaller but tremendously dedcated group of about 90 folks.

Esther, Barb, & Sally help with the textile collection, both in terms of curation and maintenance, but also in developing and creating exhibits. Helen helps us with exhibits, particularly in posterboard-mounting the text and images visitors see. Vi heps with the gardening, as a Store Assistant, Tour Docent, and keeping my paper files from devouring my office. Millie is a mainstay among the Building Attendants. Steve, like Vi, is a jack-of-many-trades helping with collections and exhibits and as a Tour Docent. A Touchet-area family has helped us garden in recent years, all four showing up to lend a hand. The list is a long one and no one is left out who wishes to participate.

On Friday we hosted a group of 20 or so young people from AmeriCorps. Each of them is required to come up with a service project and Patrick chose the Museum as a place to assist (his gal-pal Emily is the young woman, also a volunteer, you can see signing the Pledge of Allegiance through the Volunteer page on our web site: www.fortwallawallamuseum.org/volunteer.htm ). These folks helped primarily with the myriad chores of cleaning the pioneer village in preparation for visitation season, now just 8 days away. Their sheer numbers make light work of an otherwise immense project for Laura, our already heavily taxed Collections Manager.

If you're interested in giving back to the community, sharing oour wonderful community with vistors from across the country and around the world, or if you just like hanging out with like-minded folks having a good time, then come on over at 10 am Wednesday morning. The coffee pot will be on and somebody always brings cookies!

Here We Go!

Here we go!! We are finally underway with our Museum expansion project ... demolition of Exhibit Hall 1 was accomplished yesterday. After years of planning, months of fundraising ... followed with what seemed interminable waiting, the project got a grand beginning. Exhibit Hall 1 is the oldest of our formerly five display buildings and nearing the end of its 'life expectancy.' Nevertheless, it proved remarkably resiliant beneath the force of pneumatic power. As the Museum takes a step into the future, we can assume Carl Penner and others among our founders would be applauding along side the rest of us.

As I stood out in the cold drizzle to record the event, I coouldn't help but ponder the nature of reality: from destruction comes life ... the plant kingdom is fully aware of that maxim and it seems to apply to our situation, too. The new Entrance building will largely cover the footprint of Exhibit Hall 1. To take it a step further, nearly 95% of the old structure has been/will be re-used or recycled. Much of the concrete will be crushed for aggregate in the new building ... we are truly building on a foundation provided by our own 'pioneer forebearers.' More than 300 2 x4s were removed for future use and seemingly acres of strand board were salvaged. Much of the insulation was offered to interested parties. Even the two steel doors were rescued and donated to a local church.

Today a crew is hauling away the detritus. Soon we shall see the beginnings of the Museum's future rise Phoenix-like from the same location.. We'll keep you posted.

Preserving & Sharing Via Technology

The last couple of days have seen an interesting convergence of 19th century atrifacts and 21st century technology at Fort Walla Walla Museum. The first item that comes to mind is the grant we received Monday; the entire operation was done online, relating to the funding of our 1805-1806 Lewis & Clark diorama.

Another idea on the horizon is to turn a cd full of pictures of regional century+ old barns into a screen saver set for purchase through the Museum Store ... we have a couple of other notions on deck in that realm, too. These are things we can do in-house to had depth to a visitor's experience at the Museum. We have a collection chock full of interesting photographs dating way back to the community's origins; surely something can be done with some of those images, too. Ditto the several books whose copyrights we control.

All of this brings me to our mission: to preserve and share Walla Walla regional heritage. A few years ago, we acquired software that allowed us to put our entire collection records into digital format. We now know exactly how many items we have in the collection at any one time and, in theory, exactly where to locate any particular artifact. Sounds simple, but we have more than 42,000 items in the collection ... and they don't sit still.

Items are routinely rotated in and out of archival storage for displays, inter-museum loans, off-campus displays (see the exhibit case in the lobby of the Marcus Whitman Hotel & Conference center), and the always possible "other" category. Digitizing the collection was a major boon to preservation, allowing us to keep track of each and every item and devote regular periodic attention to its maintenance.

If technology allows us to enhance preservation (don't forget the digitized controls of the 'climate controlled' buildings and artifact repositories), it also helps us to share the wonderful heritage of the region's past. Being able to take a home a digital chink o' the past is a whole "brave new world" for the Museum and we'll likely move more in that direction.

Helping Hand for New Exhibit

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!!

Laura's Sense of Sunshine

Everyone, I think, is pretty happy that the gloomy days of winter are getting to be fewer and farther between. As I look out my office window, the sun is shining even if it is just 20F out there ... even that beats the heck out of dreary gray fog and drizzle.

At Fort Walla Walla Museum, sunshine presents a bit of a problem for Laura, our Collections Manager, however. As we are in a construction season, we will have a number of exhibits in our Headquarters Conference Room this year. The wall of south-facing windows have nice blinds, but even when closed the amount of light that 'leaks' in will cause damage to fragile artifacts. One of the exhibits planned for spring is a selection of our wedding dress collection (pictured), some dating to the mid-1800s. Other textile exhibits will also be displayed in the room this year, including our Annual Heritage Quilt Show in autumn(2008 show pictured).

What to do? When the going gets tough, the tough get busy. This week, Laura and her volunteers ... Esther, Sally, Sis, Helen ... are cutting poster board to fit over the windows. There will also be a drape covering the entire wall, so between the two, sunlight will be effectively blocked. Our mission is to "preserve and share" the heritage of the Walla Walla region. We can't share what we don't preserve, so we take that pretty seriously. "Preserve" means forever, and while current technologies don't let us guarantee that, we do look to get things about 200 years into the future. Our successors can then figure out how to take care of the next several centuiries, so that the fabulous story of the people of the Walla Walla valley can continue to be told for future generations.