Pendleton, OR

But first…

The 3 1/2 year old gets to start preschool today!

Do you think she looks like her mother?

Anyway, today we visited historic downtown Pendleton. Pendleton was established around 1851, and today boasts a population of about 17,000…

It is a nice, walkable downtown…

It even has a river!

We did notice these sidewalk skylights… These allow light go get into basement areas below. Which, by the way, is why we are here…

We joined the “Pendleton Underground” tour…

Like most 19th century towns, Pendleton buildings all had basements – some were built when the building was built, and others were dug out by hand after the building above was finished. These basements provided much needed storage and allowed utilitarian functions to take place out of sight. Also, in Pendleton, most basements were connected by a series of service tunnels, either under the sidewalk or under the street.

In addition to utilitarian functions, a few basements contained legal and illegal businesses as well… It was a rather rowdy town, at one time there were 32 bars and 18 brothels… There are still several bars. The brothels were shut down in 1953…

Our first visit to the underground was to a “Card Room”. It was, and is, a fully functional bar located in the basement. During the week tourists visit; on Saturday nights it still operates as a bar..

I know… Sometimes its hard to distinguish between the mannikins and members of our tour group…!

We moved to the next space. This was a Chinese laundry. The proprietor, Hop Sing, also lived here…

The next space is shown as an ice cream parlor. The actual ice cream parlor was upstairs, at street level. This basement functioned as storage, with a freezer, and this is where the ice cream was made…

This next space was the basement of a meat market. It also served as living quarters from time to time…

This pit in the floor was where the meat market proprietors made ice; they used the ice to store their meat, and they also sold it throughout the town…

And here you can see one of the sidewalk skylights. They really do let in a lot of light through prism glass… During WWII it served as a dance hall to entertain troops stationed nearby…

Another part of the basement area was a speakeasy during prohibition. It was complete with a hidden door so patrons could hide if the place was raided by the police…

This area was one of the service corridors that allowed access to the various basements…

We left the basements and went up to the street… We visited this building, labeled “Cozy Rooms”…

It was a brothel. One of the best brothels in town…

Note the large skylight above the central hallway at the top of the stairs… There are very few window, but all rooms have transom windows so that the light from the skylights reach all the rooms…

This is the chapel – the “working girls” were not welcome at the local churches, so a chapel was provided here in the brothel…

We toured the various rooms…

We exited through the back stairs, where we regrouped and went below again…

This was a Chinese boarding house and Opium den…

We enjoyed the tour – definitely a part of small town life during the Victorian era…

We returned to the Villa. Lynda enjoyed a glass of wine with her book, whilst I took a nap.

An enjoyable time was had by all…

We drove to Walla Walla, WA, today… The drive was interesting.

We are visiting the Whitman Mission National Historic Site.

Quite an interesting short history…

The Whitman Mission is outside Walla Walla, WA. Its about a 45 minute drive from Pendleton…

This map helps see the context of the Whitman Mission…

The story of the Whitman Mission:

Background: Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman journeyed overland in 1835 from the Rocky Mountains into portions of the modern states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to locate potential mission locations. They were looking for potential sites to establish a mission with the goal of Christian proselytizing and “civilizing” the native peoples.

During specific negotiations over what became the Waiilatpu Mission, six miles from the site of the present-day city of Walla Walla, Washington, Parker told the assembled Cayuse men that: “I do not intend to take your lands for nothing. After the Doctor [Whitman] is come, [sic] there will come every year a big ship, loaded with goods to be divided among the Indians. Those goods will not be sold, but given to you. The missionaries will bring you plows and hoes, to teach you how to cultivate the land, and they will not sell, but give them to you.”

The Mission: Whitman returned in 1836 with his wife, Narcissa, mechanic William H. Gray, and the missionary couple Rev. Henry Spalding and Eliza Hart Spalding. The wives were the first known white American women to enter the Pacific Northwest overland. Over the next few years the Mission interacted with the people of the Cayuse tribe, teaching them their Christian beliefs and teaching them farming techniques… Things were not without conflict, but the mission seemed to be thriving… They built several buildings on the land the Cayuse had sold them. The emigrants along the Oregon Trail stopped at the Mission for rest and medical care; many stayed on in the area. The Whitmans adopted a family of 7 orphans whose parents had died along the trail…

Conflicts: There were many through the years. The Whitmans never considered the Cayuse as equals in intellect or in culture. Disease was rampant, and most diseases affected the Cayuse far worse than the white people. Other native tribes sought to sow mistrust of the white men amongst the Cayuse. Measles became epidemic, and the treatments Dr. Whitman gave to the whites cured them, but the Cayuse, taking the same medicines, continued to die.

Violence: In November, 1847, a small band of the Cayuse approached the mission, and in the subsequent violence, Dr. and Mrs. Whitman were murdered. Eleven others were also killed, including two of the adopted orphans. As many as 30 survivors were taken hostage by the Cayuse. They were released a month later in exchange for a supply of blankets, handkerchiefs, clothing, tobacco, rifles, and ammunition. A few years later, the Cayuse turned in five of their men, who went to trail, were found guilty, and were hanged.

Aftermath: This was the end of the first Presbyterian missionaries in the Pacific Northwest. Whitman Mission closed, and was eventually destroyed.

In 1859, the Presbyterian Church opened a seminary in nearby Walla Walla, and named it Whitman College…

The Visitors Center had displays and told the story… It differs a bit from what I have read through other sourses, but the essence is the same..

We walked the grounds. There are outlines of where the buildings used to be…

This is where the Oregon Trail came through the property… More ruts to see…

The Whitman Memorial ia atop this hill…

About halfway down the back side of the hill are the graves of the 13 who were killed on that fateful day…

And now it is time for lunch… We drove to Walla Walla. This is the center of the region’s wine making industry. The town appears to be very prosperous, until you see that downtown has been taken over by wine tasting rooms, restaurants, and tourist trinket shops. Not necessarily a bad thing – it’s better than boarded up storefronts. But it felt a little like Disneyland. I doubr that residents do their daily shopping and other errands here…

We found an interesting restaurant called “Bacon and Eggs”…

We enjoyed a nice lunch… Lynda ordered Bacon and Eggs… I had Lox and Bagels…

Back in the RV Park our “Cook-out Committee” had put together a pioneer dinner, using cast iron cookware, much like what the emigrants would have used along the Oregon Trail…