Sunday, April 08, 2007

On the Trail of History

I noticed this advertisement in the April 2007 issue of Nostalgia magazine, a local publication "reliving the memories of the Inland Northwest."
The Spokane county Heritage Museums Association announces the 1st Annual "On the Trail of History" tour event. On Friday, April 27, a one-day event designed to educate, inform and connect you with an authentic historical experience begins.

The Trail of History Tour can begin at any point on the map. The suggested starting point is the Mullan Military Road marker at Vista and East Sprague in front of the Plantation Restaurant.

Visit historic sites and three area museums to learn more about the history of this great area. A $10.00 admission gets you in all three museums with a souvenir ticket provided at the first museum of your visit.

The trail includes nine stops. The first four markers are monuments of the Mullan Military Wagon Road: "This is one of the most important pioneer-traveled routes in the Northwest. Government-sponsored and built, it connected the Columbia River to distant Fort Benton, Montana. Perhaps it can truly be called the first transcontinental road system."

The fifth marker is Mt. Hope Church and Cemetery. There was lovely human-interest article in the Spokesman-Review about this pioneer cemetery recently, which I had hoped to reprint in my blog. However, the S-R's $25 re-publishing fee quickly made me change my mind!

Hangman Creek is the sixth marker. "This monument is the site where Col. George Wright hung Chief Qualchen and six warriors of the Yakima Indian Tribe. It is also the site where Col. Wright signed a peace treating ending Indian warfare in the Northwest." Ah, yes, Col. Wright, the iron fist of the Army. In his determination to quell the Yakima uprisings, he punitatively and brutally vanquished every tribe in the region, peaceful or not.

Markers 7, 8, and 9 are Fairfield, Rockford Military, and Spokane Valley Heritage museums, respectively. For more information, call Jayne Singleton at the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum at (509) 922-4570.

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