75 years ago...

Or thereabouts.

A lovely conversation with Karen Bergevin Zohner yesterday got me thinking about how a community thinks about its history, and how that narrative is created and passed on.

But before I take you down that rabbit hole, a quick reminder - Living History at the Frenchtown site at 1 pm on Sunday, August 17, with Judy Fortney on one family’s experience with the Indian Boarding School system. 

After World War II, there was a surge in activity around the history of Frenchtown. The Union Bulletin published a series of old-timer profiles in 1947. The first (according to the Walla Walla Union Bulletin) official Frenchtown Rendezvous took place on April 24, 1949.

It’s likely that the renewed interest in Frenchtown history was sparked by work at the Whitman Mission. In 1947 and 1948, Whitman Mission National Historic Site, then known as Whitman National Monument, was the site of archaeological excavations seeking to locate and document any remains of the mission buildings.

The Union Bulletin article gives us a date for when Tom Bergevin of Montana described the cabin locations for his daughter, which was later used to create the Frenchtown Cabin Map. The image below is for illustration; you can view a legible copy by downloading the pdf.

Stay tuned.. more coming soon….

Sarah Hurlburt on behalf of Frenchtown Historical Foundation