Smooth as a New Parking Lot!

We're doing land office business today! I'm not at all sure where that expression comes from or why it means that business is booming, but that's where we are today. It's kind of unusual for a Monday, but perhaps today's slightly cooler temperatures are encouraging people to venture forth. Whatever the reason, we're glad they chose us for visiting.

We work hard at reaching the public ... with a mission that demands that we engage in "...sharing the heritage..." it's our duty to bring artifacts (and their stories) and people together. How we do that is quite varied. First, our newsletter is sent either electronically or via 'snail mail' to our members. We also send out lots of news releases to various entities, including print, radio, and television. We try to reach travelers through our rack cards that appear in regional hotels/motels and B&Bs. We make appearances at community events like Farmers Market and the recent '4th of July in the Park.' We create posters that get distributed throughout the area. We take ads out in a variety of places. And for many folks, we keep up our web site and reach more folks with this blog.

Through it all, the one thing that reaches more people, at least in terms of where our visitors tell us they heard about the Museum is 'word of mouth.' I can testify that many of the people I meet at the Farmers Market tell me they have friends or relatives coming to town soon and they will likely bring those folks out to see the neighborhood treasure house. Many of our phone calls are folks asking us about our times of operation or rates of admission (10 am - 5 pm daily, April through October; $7/adults, $6/seniors (62+) and students, $3/ children 6-12, and FREE to members and kids under 6) because "my Dad's in town" or "my husband's family is visiting."

We also appreciate that unofficial cadre of ambassadors who help spread the good word by telling all theiur friends and family about the great time they had at Fort Walla Walla Museum. That amounts to a lot of people ... we are within three states (Kansas, West Virginia, and Mississippi) of receiving visitors from 50 states; last year we had a record 42 countries represented by our visiotrs. When people have a good time her, they often tell others. It never hurts to be from an excellent, friendly community, either.

Construction update: Last Friday the crew got our parking lot paved. Fresh blacktop looks pretty neat before anyone's driven on it and even before the lines are painted. Today's photos include (top to bottom) the smoothing of the black top; the first blacktop spread; John, Bunmee and their daughter Thaireen from Wales with their Walla Walla friend; Christina, baby Angel, Katherine & Kamika from Georgia; and Marc-Thomas & Urte with son Nicholas from Germany.

Here's something about blacktop, also known as asphalt, you may not know if you're much younger than me ... the term "tarmac," often heard when a person lands at an airport ... sometimes those greatly happy to be at the place will literally kiss the tarmac ... comes from an older expression, "tar macadam." John McAdam, a Scottish engineer/road builder, developed a process in 1816 now known as 'macadamization,' using crushed rock on a bed of larger rock to create a smooth surface and raised in the center for water run-off. It was the first major change in road construction since the days of the Roman Empire. In later years, an application of tar was used to bind it all together, thus tar macadam ... it was shortened to tarmac and is now used as a reference to any large, paved surface.

Fort Walla Walla Days!

Wahoo! This weekend is our annual Fort Walla Walla Days! The point is to portray and commemorate the region's 19th century military and Indian heritage, and we do that in colorful, enjoyable fashion.

This year, we'll feature a Civil War skirmish re-enactment. Now you might be thinking, Huh? There was no Civil War action out here! That's true, but soldiers posted at Fort Walla Walla during the Civil War years were sent back east to serve. In our current Abraham Lincoln and Walla Walla County exhibit, such a story can be seen. You can also be sure that loved ones those soldiers left behind ... as well as anyone else living here at the time ... would have been all but desperate for news of the war. Imagine a 3-month old newspaper arriving in town in those days.

We also have military encampments representing several eras of the 19th century from the Lewis & Clark expedition through the Spanish-American War. A few years ago when one of the community's World War I cannons came to rest on Museum grounds, we began including an encampment from those days, too, as artillery training went on briefly at Fort Walla Walla in 1916. There is a wonderful photo of utility-pole cannons resting on wagons that local, enterprising farm boys used as make-shift training equipment that will be displayed in our upcoming (Friday, June 12) new special exhibit, Salute! Soldiering in the Walla Walla Region, just in time for the weekend's activities.

Regional Indian people will share their stories, too, and give good play to their ongoing cultural vitality. This includes Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, the museum of The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and a new traveling exhibit of the Wanapum people. I think the Wanapum are bringing a young dancing phenom with them, too.

We'll have an author here on Saturday, Greg Hodgen, who co-wrote The Rocks are Ringing: Bannock-Paiute Indian War, Oregon, 1878. Soldiers from Fort Walla Walla engaged in the final encounter of that sad affair at Battle Mountain, just south of Pendleton. Greg may also do a Living History presentation of Cpl. Philip Murphy, a soldier from Fort Walla Walla.

It's also a chance for us to show more of our cultural side, as we present our annual 3-day Western Art Show beginning Friday. Coordinated by artist David Partridge, it features the work of several local artists following a general Western theme.

To top things off, we'll have food available from Tinos' Tacos and Deeney's Ice Cream. Looks like a great way to spend time with the family!

Today's photos show (top to bottom( our blacksmith shop demonstraion, a beadwork demonstration at the Wanapum exhibit, General William Clark, Kathleen Gordon from Tamástslikt, and a Civil War camp.

"Is it Going to Look Like a Fort?"

While the staff at Fort Walla Walla Museum finsishes its planning for our biggest event of the year, Fort Walla Walla Days! set for June 13-14, construction continues on our new Entrance building. Much of the effort is being directed at the entry of the new structure, with the installation of the blockhouse entry visitors will see from the new parking lot just outside.

With our A Special Season series of exhibits in the Headquarters this year, we've talked with a lot of people who wonder if the new building will "look like a fort." When here, they can get a good look at our plans, blueprints, and architects models that show what we hope to end up with after Phase I is completed, as well as the vision for the entire project, completed perhaps over a decade. The answer to the question is, well, yes and no. I think what folks are expecting is that our new appearance will resemble that classic "Fort Apache" look from the movies that people associate with military forts from the Old West. Ours won't look like that.

While some of the early Northwest Fur Company and Hudson's Bay Company trading posts had stockades and blockhouses, military forts did not resemble those. At one time in the early 1820s, the post's Chief Factor described the place as "the Gibraltar of the Columbia." You can get a glimpse of the military's idea of a fort at the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Medical Center ... the VA ... just around the corner from us, or a stroll down the 'Planet Walk.' On the backside of the VA facility stand the 1858 Officers Quarters, though their appearance today is not what they originally looked like. Nevertheless, that clapboard look is what we're striving for. Inititally, we thought to have them painted deep brown, as is the Headquarters building, but research indicated that such a color was not in keeping with reality. A greyish-white/whitish-grey is more like it.

We expect to complete construction by October, which means the tough work of filling up new space must begin ... that leaves us only five months to get ready for a new season in 2010! If you'd like to make a contribution to the cause, we're all ears.

Today's photos should help you get a look at what we're up to with the entry and some comparisons to the past. At the top: a construction photo shows the beginnings of the new entry; next is an image of the VA's Officers Quarters as they appear today; the black-and-white image is the Hudson's Bay Company fort at Wallula on the Columbia River, ca. 1820; the original adobe block construction beneath the exterior of the Officer's Quarters; an architect's rendering of Phase I shows the grey-white color of the buildings; and the other architect's rendering shows the design of the blockhouse-look entrance.

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.

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.