9/10/14 - Whitman Mission NHS

Whitman Mission National Historic Site is near Walla Walla, Washington--which is great fun to say! (Walla-Walla-WASH-ing-ton!)   We didn't stay very long--just long enough for George to get his passport stamps and a quick trip through the museum--so this will be a short post.




The site tells of the events at Waiilatpu from 1836, when Marcus and Narcissa Whitman established their mission, details of the tragic misunderstanding and "massacre" by the Cayuse Indians after a measles epidemic, up to 1846 when Oregon became an official territory of the US.  

Our timing was really bad.  We got in on the last 20 seconds of the video before the credits started rolling.  Ranger programs end after Labor Day weekend--two days ago. We had to be in Pendleton in less than an hour.

There's a museum in the Visitor Center.  This is my favorite exhibit:

Some interesting "firsts":

• Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were the first Protestant missionaries to the Northwest (along with fellow missionaries William Gray and Henry and Eliza Spalding)
• Narcissa and Eliza were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains
• Whitman and Spalding printed the first books published in the Pacific Northwest--
• After a trip back east in 1843, Whitman led the first wagon train to the Columbia River on what became the Oregon Trail 

A (very) few more pictures here:  Whitman Mission Natl Historic Site