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FRENCHTOWN RENDEZVOUS
Cultural Gathering and Salmon Feed to Support
the Frenchtown Historic Site
Saturday October 8th 4:00 PM
The historic Frenchtown site provides an essential link to our area’s history and culture. On Saturday October 8nd, a celebration will be held to raise funds to preserve and enhance this important community asset, and to honor those who lived and died there.
The Frenchtown Rendezvous starts at 4:00 pm at Frenchtown Hall in Lowden, 10 miles west of Walla Walla. The celebration will include a Salmon Feast, brief talks by members of the Frenchtown Historical Foundation and local tribes, music, dancing, a raffle, and displays.
The requested donation for tickets is $25.00 per person. They are available at Destination Walla Walla located at 26 East Main St in Walla Walla, or from members of the Frenchtown Historical Foundation.
Frenchtown Historical Foundation (FHF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and interpreting the site of the 1855 Battle of Walla Walla in the heart of historic Frenchtown, and the St. Rose Mission and Cemetery established in 1876 on the grounds of the battlefield.
Guests are invited to bring genealogical information to share relating to Frenchtown.
For tickets, call (509) 386-1500 or (541) 276-3601, or email frenchtownpartners@charter.net. For more information, go to www.frenchtownpartners.org.
BICENTENNIAL OF THE BEGINNING OF THE FUR TRADE MARKS
GRAND OPENING OF THE FRENCHTOWN HISTORIC SITE JULY 9
Two hundred years ago David Thompson of the Northwest Company came down the Columbia River to open the fur trade in the Walla Walla area. On July 9, 1811, Thompson planted a British flag at the mouth of the Snake claiming the area for Britain and announced to the Walla Walla Indians his plans to establish a fur trading post at Wallula, which became known as Fort Nez Perces and later as Fort Walla Walla.
On Saturday, July 9, these and other events were commemorated at the grand opening of the Frenchtown Historic Site eight miles west of Walla Walla on Old Highway 12, in the area originally settled by French Canadian employees of the North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company and their Indian wives.
The public events on July 9 at Frenchtown will began at 12:30 pm with a guided tour of the site, which is on the grounds of the 1855 Battle of Walla Walla and is the location of the 1876 Saint Rose of Lima Mission and Frenchtown Cemetery.
Following the guided tour of the 27-acre site, a representative of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation gave an invocation and introductory remarks at 1:15, after which a living history presentation featured David Thompson himself at 2 pm. Other scheduled living history presenters included pioneer Catholic missionaries J.B.A. Brouillet and Eugene Chirouse at 2:45, as well as tribal member and Frenchtown wife Suzanne Cayouse Dauphin at 3:30.
Sam Pambrun, descendant of two chief traders at Fort Nez Perces and the current president of the Frenchtown Historical Foundation, served as master of ceremonies and will offer closing remarks at 4:15.
In addition to the interpretive signage installed throughout the site, there were special displays for the event in the area where the Frenchtown foundation is planning to construct a log shelter for future presentations, displays, and other purposes.
To get to Frenchtown from new Highway 12, turn south on Frenchtown Road at the sign for the Frenchtown Historic Site approximately eight miles west of Walla Walla, turn right at Old Highway 12 and go one mile to the entrance drive on the right. Coming from Walla Walla on Old Highway 12, continue west past the Whitman Mission site one mile to the historical markers at Frenchtown Road and continue another mile west on Old Highway 12 to the Frenchtown entrance.
The Frenchtown site is open from sunrise to sunset seven days a week with no admission charge. For more information on Frenchtown, the Frenchtown Historical Foundation, and the grand opening and bicentennial event, go to www.frenchtownpartners.org, email frenchtownpartners@charter.net, or call 509-629-0044.
See below for news of the 12-10-10 dedication of the Frenchtown site.
FRENCHTOWN HISTORIC SITE OPENED AND DEDICATED DECEMBER 11, 2010 ON 155th ANNIVERSARY OF BATTLE OF WALLA WALLA
The Frenchtown Historical Foundation had its formal Opening & Dedication of the twenty-seven acre Frenchtown Historic Site on Saturday, December 11, 2010. The opening ceremonies took place at the historic site two miles west of the Whitman Mission on Old Highway 12, and were followed by a reception at Frenchtown Hall in Lowden.
The event took place on the 155th Anniversary of the 1855 Battle of Walla Walla, and included the rededication of the 1876 Frenchtown Cemetery, in which early Frenchtown residents including several tribal members are buried.
The opening of the site culminates over five years work by the Frenchtown Historical Foundation in acquiring the land, performing an archaeological survey, developing a master plan, working with the Department of Transportation on highway location and cemetery protection, cooperation with the Walla Walla County Conservation District and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation on restoring native vegetation, and consulting with historians, Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, and others on historical interpretation.
Those speaking at the opening and dedication ceremonies included Frenchtown Historical Foundation president and vice-president Daniel Clark and Sam Pambrun, board member Gerald Reed chair of the Cultural Resources Committee at the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Marcus Luke a CTUIR spiritual leader, Fr. Patrick Kerst pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Walla Walla, and Gerri Coleman representing Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who presented a statement of congratulations introduced into the Congressional Record.
For a compilation of news articles on the opening of the Frenchtown site, click here and here. See dedication photos below.
