Fort Nez Perce/Walla Walla and Madame Dorion

West of Walla Walla is McNary National Wildlife Refuge along the Walla Walla River. Here is the Madame Dorion marker, and just up the road is the site of the original Fort Walla Walla, the Hudson Bay's Company one.



This terrain is called "shrub-steppe"


Madame Dorion's memorial marker (she's buried in the Willamette Valley, though). She was one tough lady.

Frenchtown

Before the Whitmans got to Washington, there was a Hudson's Bay Company outpost (you know, "54-40 or fight!") here, and its trappers and other personnel lived in a settlement called Frenchtown. After the battle of Walla Walla (Dec 1855), part of the Yakama War, the town was abandoned for a time. There's very little left here, but there's an effort underway to restore the site.

the site's sign


Frenchtown site marker - badly shot by me!


Frenchtown and Santa Rosa church marker


the cemetary


this is one of the posts marking the site of the church



A light-morph Swainson's Hawk soaring overhead, probably one of the ones we saw at the Whitman Mission, given how close the two places are


These are some of the many red-winged grasshoppers around the site. Drab and hard to see when on the ground, they flash a sudden and unexpected red when they fly. It was impossible for me to get a good shot of that - they're small, fast and unpredictable, but it was magical to see. Below is someone else's shot of their wings.




Here's a shot of one showing its wings (©Charley Eiseman, licensed under Creative Commons).

The Whitman Mission

In 1836 missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions crossed the Rockies and established a mission at Waiilatpu (the place of rye grass), near modern Walla Walla. (The wives were the first white women to come west overland, though Sacajawea and Madame Dorion both preceded them, the latter also living in the area). After an apparently successful first few years, the Whitmans found that the Native Americans in the area weren't converting, and he turned his attention to the increasing Oregon Trail pioneers, setting up a school and hospital, taking in orphans from the trail, and giving them a place to rest up after the mountains, though he did continue to treat the Cayuse and Nez Perce, though  unfortunately without much success. On November 29, 1847, after a particularly dreadful attack of measles (brought by the pioneers) killed half of the local Cayuse, including almost all their children, the Whitmans and some of the pioneers overwintering at the mission were killed, the rest of the residents held for ransom and later released. The wonderfully curated Whitman Mission National Historic Site is a great place to visit, providing an even-handed view of the tragic incidents that sparked the eight-year Cayuse War. The rangers are great, knowledgeable and helpful, and they have a terribly good (and new) film about the incident, and a ranger talk that places it in the greater geopolitical context of US history.

The marker for Waiilatpu (Why-ee-lat-poo)



Entry to the National Historic Site


Rye grass


A photo from the exhibit, a Cayuse chief


Diorama of Cayuse meeting the Whitmans


The Great Grave


The Whitman obelisk


On top of the hill, a drawing of the site in 1847 overlooking the area illustrated...




... so you can compare




Soaring overhead, several Swainson's hawks




Surely this is an unnecessary sign!


Ruts from the actual Oregon Trail



Concrete blocks outlining the buildings


A dragonfly


Here's a redtailed hawk overlooking the road between the mission and Frenchtown (next post!)

In Walla Walla - the fort and a Victorian mansion

We went to Fort Walla Walla (the third of that name) which was quite close to our hotel, and then to a Victorian mansion, the Kirkman house. The house was interesting (though at the time of our trip filled with wedding dresses from the near past - 1950s to 1980s), but you've seen one Victorian house you've seen a lot of them.

There's a nice park, with skateboarding and a dog park, next to the fort




One of the many squirrels - they seem leggier than ours back East


A magpie - the Fort was full of them; Walla Walla also had crows


Magpie and shadow


Magpie


Molting magpie


Squirrel with cleft ear - you looking at me?


Magpie in tree (same tree as the squirrel)


The cemetery


A pioneer cabin - there was a whole little town there


This was actually a playhouse, not a real cabin


But but but ... we're already inside!


Hmmmmmm .... who's in the stockade?


Omigod! It's Brad Pitt!


A 33-mule team, part of a genuinely fascinating exhibit on wheat harvesting


Chain of translation between (Lewis &) Clark and Yellept, a Walla Walla chief


The Kirkman House Museum


The house itself