Historic Walla Walla

We were surprised to find a national historic site managed by the National Park Service in Walla Walla Washington. At Whitman Mission NHS we learned about a missionary family who predated the flow of pioneers into northern Oregon by over 5 years!

In 1835, the American Board of Foreign Missions sent Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa to the Oregon Country to select a mission site. Their mission was to convert the indigenous folk to Christianity and thereby, save them from eternal damnation. For over 5 years the Whitman’s only lived among the Cayuse tribe preaching the bible. The only other white Europeans they saw were trappers working for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

In 1841 American pioneers began to arrive from the east. Only 25 documented pioneers entered Oregon in 1841, 100 in 1842 and 800 in 1843. It wasn’t until the late 1840’s that the numbers became thousands per year. With those large numbers came the diseases that the white Europeans had built resistance to – small pox and others. The Cayuse saw that when whites contracted diseases, Dr. Whitman was able to cure them. But when the Cayuse contracted these diseases, they died.

In 1847 a particularly vicious strain of measles hit the area. Again, whites generally survived when treated by Dr. Whitman, but upwards of half the entire population of Cayuse died from this epidemic. Believing that Dr. Whitman was either not treating them the same as whites, or may even be poisoning them, on November 29 1847, a Cayuse party attacked the Mission killing the Whitman’s and 10 other pioneers who had holed up there for the winter.

The NHS is the site of the 1835 Mission. The original grave site where the Whitman’s and other pioneers killed in the massacre is on a hill overlooking the Mission site. No buildings are here, but the foundations of the original Mission buildings have been excavated so you can see and actually stand in the rooms where both Marcus and Narcissa Whitman’s dead bodies lay after the raid.

This was a very interesting site, and not one either of us had learned about in school.

We also visited the Frenchtown Historic Site. In the late 1840 with the arrival of thousands of pioneers, towns started to dot the Walla Walla River. This site was a town established primarily by French Canadians, and also ended up being the location of the Battle of Walla Walla, the longest battle with natives in the Oregon territory. This cabin was actually built in 1837, and is the oldest standing structure in the state.

Talk to you soon!