CREATING A FRENCHTOWN HISTORIC SITE
By Daniel N. Clark, J.D.
December 8, 2014
On December 11, 2010, a wet blustery day exactly 155 years after the close of the Battle of Walla Walla, about a hundred people gathered on the site of what is reputed to be the longest battle in Washington State history. The occasion was the formal opening of the Frenchtown Historic Site near Walla Walla and the rededication of the old Frenchtown cemetery.
Five years before that, on Saturday, December 10, 2005, another very cold day reminiscent of the battle, over 75 people attended an open air observance at the battlefield site, and over 100 people attended the reception and program that followed at Frenchtown Hall in Lowden. The ceremonies included singing, drumming, and words from leaders of the Umatilla Reservation, greetings from the governor and a U.S. Senator, talks by a state legislator, a county commissioner, the president of Whitman College, and descendants of Frenchtown residents.
At the time of the 2005 sesquicentennial ceremony, a more important event unknown to most participants was the signing of an agreement between landowners and the Frenchtown Historical Foundation that led to the conveyance of a deed to what has become the upper 27 acres of the Frenchtown Historic Site. It also led to the receipt by the Frenchtown foundation of an adjoining 30 acres along the Walla Walla River, which it has recently conveyed to its partner at Frenchtown, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
On July 9, 2011, the Frenchtown Historical Foundation held its Grand Opening of the Frenchtown Historic Site on the two hundredth anniversary of the launching of the fur trade in the inland region by David Thompson of the Canadian North West Company, the event that led to the birth of Walla Walla’s Frenchtown. Thompson had come down the Columbia River from Canada, and on July 9, 1811, planted a British flag at the mouth of the Snake River, claiming the area for Britain and telling the Walla Walla Indians of his company’s plans to establish the first fur trading post in the region near there, which they accomplished in 1818.
Work on the creation of a Frenchtown Historic Site began in the summer of 1993 when the Frenchtown Historical Foundation was established by descendants of the early settlers with the goal of acquiring some of the ground where the old Saint Rose of Lima Mission Church and the final Frenchtown cemetery were located, eight miles west of Walla Walla.
After the North West Company had merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821, fur traders and trappers from what became the HBC trading post at Wallula began settling in the Walla Walla valley with their Indian wives and Metis or mixed blood children in about 1824. What became known as Frenchtown was a dispersed collection of about fifty log cabins scattered among Indian camps along a stretch of the Walla Walla River as well as its tributaries Mill Creek, Pine Creek, Dry Creek, and Mud Creek. Frenchtown began roughly at present-day Lowden and extended east almost to today’s city of Walla Walla. When American missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman established their mission in the Walla Walla Valley in 1836, there were probably a dozen French-Canadian families already occupying farms in the area.
To support these families and to evangelize local Indians, in 1853 the first Catholic mission and cemetery in the valley, Saint Rose of the Cayouse, was established near the confluence of the Walla Walla River and Yellowhawk Creek, and the Saint Rose Donation Claim was also filed, though the mission house was burned and the claim was abandoned during the Yakima-Walla Walla Indian War of 1855. In 1863, a chapel was built on the adjoining donation land claim of William McBean, which was then moved down the Walla Walla River to the vicinity of what is now the Frenchtown Historic Site where a new cemetery was also established along the river. Around 1870, a log schoolhouse was added there. By 1876, due to flooding along the river, the cemetery was moved to the hill on what is now the upper 27-acre portion of the Frenchtown Historic Site, and the Saint Rose of Lima Mission Church was built on part of the lower 30 acres along the Walla Walla river.
In addition to establishing the Frenchtown Historical Foundation in 1993, a Frenchtown Rendezvous was organized by Frank Munns and other descendants of the Bergevin family, with the help of tribal members from the Umatilla Reservation. The primary purpose of the Rendezvous was to remember the friendly relations that existed between Frenchtown residents and members of area tribes, though there was also hope that an old church could be moved onto the former mission site, and that the cemetery which had been abandoned and farmed over for years could be protected. Unfortunately, no agreement was able to be reached at that time with the owners of the site, and nothing having come of these efforts, the Frenchtown Historical Foundation lay dormant for the next thirteen years.
In the summer of 2005, when the Washington State Department of Transportation began holding community meetings regarding its plans for four-laning U.S. Highway 12 from the mouth of the Snake River to Walla Walla, I noted that the Frenchtown Cemetery was listed as a key heritage site to be protected along that route. For several years, as coordinator of the living history company at Fort Walla Walla Museum I had been researching and telling the story of the Battle of Walla Walla which was centered in the Frenchtown area, and had also been talking with members of the farm family that owned the cemetery site about creating public access to it for descendants and other interested people, without success.
In addition, I had already been in touch with DOT regarding the possibility of creating a Wallula interpretive overlook as called for in an existing Snake River Bridge to Walla Walla Heritage Corridor Management Plan that had been prepared as part the National Scenic Byways program. At a public meeting on the new highway project, I mentioned Frenchtown to one of the environmental specialists I had become acquainted with, who recommended that we organize a meeting with DOT and other interested parties to discuss the cemetery and how DOT might help us to protect it.
In September 2005, hoping that the Department might be able to acquire the cemetery itself since it was located adjacent to the planned highway expansion, I invited DOT staff, interested members of the Bergevin family, leaders from the Umatilla reservation, members of local history organizations, environmentalists, and tourism advocates to a meeting to discuss Frenchtown.
At our meeting in the historic dining car at the Depot Restaurant, DOT staff invited a letter requesting the Department’s acquisition of the cemetery site as potential environmental impact mitigation. They also suggested we consider applying for a National Scenic Byways grant for which DOT might be able to contribute a portion of the required matching funds.
Once DOT staffers had left the meeting, those remaining discussed the importance of forming a coalition of partners interested in protecting and interpreting the Frenchtown site, including descendants of the settlers, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, wildlife groups, environmental organizations, Tourism Walla Walla, and local history groups.
In October, the locals met again, this time at the location of the original French-Canadian cabin on the Claro Bergevin ranch, where the Oregon Mounted Volunteers had established Fort Bennett during the battle. At that meeting we shared potential goals for the Frenchtown site, including (1) possible cemetery acquisition, (2) an interpretive turnout and overlook from the new four-lane highway to the north of the cemetery, (3) acquisition of the farm field between the cemetery and the old highway for access to the cemetery and overlook, as well as a nature area, and (4) acquisition of the additional farm field lying below the old highway down to the Walla Walla River for wildlife habitat and open space, as well as for for interpretation of the St. Rose of Lima church site located there and a view to the neighboring Larocque cabin site where Walla Walla Chief Peopeomoxmox was killed during the battle. Those who attended included ceremonial Walla Walla chief Carl Sampson, a descendant and namesake of Peopeomoxmox, and Gerald Reed, a member of the Cultural Resources Committee of the CTUIR and co-chair of the Cultural Resources Committee of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.
After noting that the principal fighting in the four-day Battle of Walla Walla took place between the Larocque cabin on the Bergevin place and the Tellier cabin a mile to the east, I told the group:
As we consider the future of this site rich in history for Native Americans, for the French and French-Canadians, for Catholics, and for people from all backgrounds interested in our history and cultures, I can see at least two distinct possibilities.
The first possibility, or we might say probability, is that these historic fields will become filled with housing. The farm family that owns them does not wish to continue to farm them once they are cut off from the rest of their farm by the new highway, and they wish to sell them. Large homes will be the most likely result.
The second possibility is that these historic grounds will be preserved and protected by those who value them, as a cemetery site, for historic interpretation, as a natural area and wildlife habitat, and for other compatible purposes.
After everyone had spoken, we pledged to pursue the acquisition, preservation, and interpretation of the central Frenchtown site, and agreed to continue meeting in order to refine our vision and continue our efforts.
Following the meeting, I to put up our website, frenchtownpartners.org, and also discovered that the Frenchtown Historical Foundation’s nonprofit corporate status had been dissolved due to inactivity, which I was able to reinstate. We then elected Russ Bergevin as president of the renewed Frenchtown Historical Foundation, and I agreed to serve as vice-president. Russ was a great enthusiast, the senior member of the large Bergevin family at that time, and a wonderful storyteller whom I had recruited to tell stories about Frenchtown as part of the living history company at Fort Walla Walla Museum,
At our next meeting, we were joined by Sam Pambrun whose great-great-grandfather Pierre was the chief trader at the HBC trading post at Fort Walla Walla when Marcus and Narcissa Whitman arrived in 1836. Along with Russ Bergevin and Russ’s cousin Claro, Sam became a strong advocate for our acquiring and preserving as much of the Frenchtown site as possible, as did Gerald Reed from the CTUIR.
When DOT staff informed us that the agency wouldn’t be in a position to acquire the property after all, we decided to write to the property owners themselves. Though we had no money or any specific hope of raising enough for an actual land purchase of development property, we proceeded on the theory that it is good to tell people what you want and to see where that may lead. Here’s what we said, at least in part:
Frenchtown Partners is a coalition of interested parties dedicated to preserving and interpreting the site of the St. Rose Mission and Cemetery established in 1876 on the grounds of the historic 1855 Battle of Walla Walla.
Our goals include the creation of a turnout and interpretive overlook from the planned highway north of the cemetery, acquisition and preservation of the cemetery itself, and establishment of a permanent access path to the cemetery and interpretive overlook from the existing highway.
Beyond these fundamental goals, we are interested in possibilities for acquisition and preservation of all or a portion of the land between the cemetery and the existing highway, as well as land south of the existing highway down to the river, which is also part of the battleground and where the historic St. Rose Mission was located.
We know that you are considering development plans for the land north of the existing highway, and we would like to meet with you to discuss how the community interests we represent might be accommodated in those plans.
Best wishes,
Daniel N. Clark, Coordinator Carl Sampson Russ Bergevin, President
Frenchtown Partners Chief of the Walla Wallas Frenchtown Historical Foundation
In our case, this approach turned out very favorably.
The first response we received from the property owners was an offer to sell us the land at the market rate of $7500 an acre, less deductions for their retention of water and transferable development rights. Though we were in no position to proceed on that basis, before long, to our surprise, we received a much better offer from them.
We knew the landowners were currently in the process of developing a golf course and upscale housing complex on the north side of the new highway, in addition to several lots on the south site adjoining the cemetery. In pursuing this, they believed it would be to their advantage if the route of the new highway east of the cemetery were to be moved a few feet to the south.
Just a few days before our 150th anniversary commemoration, the property owners informed us that they would appreciate our assistance in getting the route adjusted, and that if the new highway were built where they proposed, they would give us title to both the cemetery and approximately 23 adjoining acres. They also offered to include an option to purchase the remaining thirty acres of their property between the old highway and the Walla Walla River at a market price.
This struck us as an astounding opportunity. Before agreeing, though, we wanted to be sure we could accept in good conscience. After looking into the question, we were satisfied that the revised route would not adversely affect either the cemetery or the neighboring property owners. With that assurance, we agreed to exercise our best efforts to help the landowners achieve their goals through communications with DOT and any affected homeowners. This agreement was reduced to a writing, which we all signed at Frenchtown Hall on the day of our sesquicentennial event.
After several communications with DOT and a series of meetings in which all of the neighbors reached agreement, DOT implemented the requested route change, and the owners, good to their word, promised they would provide a deed to the upper twenty-three acres as soon as highway construction was completed.
Following these events, in March 2006 the landowners made a further proposal to the Frenchtown foundation. If there were no appeals of any required county permitting with respect to their planned housing and golf course development, they would deed to the Frenchtown foundation their remaining 30 acres lying between the old highway and the Walla Walla River, retaining only the right to build two homes in the northeast corner of that parcel.
The landowners’ primary motivation in making this offer was apparently to avoid the kind of legal challenges a similar high end golf course and housing project was experiencing from two other groups I was cooperating with as an attorney. That project, just east of the Walla Walla airport, had become the most divisive development in local history, due to its impact on our community’s water supply as well as other important values, and following substantial litigation it was ultimately abandoned.
The planned Frenchtown golf course and development was to draw water from an unconnected portion of the aquifer, would actually use less water than the current alfalfa crops grown there, and was in any event grandfathered in as an approved use under the current zoning. For these reasons, the groups I worked with had no intention of trying to block the landowners’ development, and the Frenchtown foundation was glad to agree to this new proposal.
All county development applications were approved without appeals, the development rights to the two building sites reserved by the landowners were able to be transferred off the property, and the Frenchtown foundation received a deed to the full 30 acres lying between the upper site and the Walla Walla River. We have recently transferred this lower portion of the Frenchtown site to the Confederated Umatilla Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who we believe are in the best position to administer and restore this riparian habitat property, pursuant to written agreements with the Foundation requiring coordinated administration between the CTUIR and FHF for the full Frenchtown Historic Site.
Having achieved our acquisition goal, in in 2006 we applied for and received a $35,000 American Battlefield Protection Program grant from the National Park Service to help achieve our goals of public access and interpretation,. This grant funded an archaeological survey and a National Historic Register nomination carried out by Eastern Washington University archaeologist Stan Gough and historian Stephen Emmerson. Gough and Emmerson’s work resulted in the discovery of musket balls and other artifacts from the 1855 battle in the vicinity of the LaRocque cabin, as well as the listing of the Frenchtown site on the Washington Heritage Register. Our application for a National Register listing has yet to be approved.
In 2008, the Frenchtown Historical Foundation applied for and received a $50,000 National Scenic Byways grant through the Federal Highway Administration for the preparation of a master plan for the Frenchtown site, and we contracted for this work with a northwest engineering firm along with Richland architect Jim Stenkamp. In October 2008, the completed plan was adopted by our Frenchtown board, and with some revision has guided our work since then.
We have now replanted the entire 57-acre Frenchtown site in native grasses. On the upper 27 acres, we have built trails, put in an entrance road and parking area, installed interpretive signage, and erected two shelters at a cost of approximately $200,000 raised from local sources.
In addition to the Frenchtown Rendezvous we hold each fall at Frenchtown Hall in Lowden, we have initiated annual celebrations of St. Jean Baptiste Day in the Walla Walla Valley—the French-Canadian equivalent of St. Patrick’s Day—which have included tours of the sites of the original Frenchtown cabins, performances and participatory dancing including the local Frenchtown Dance Troupe we have organized featuring traditional French-Canadian and Metis circles, squares, reels, and waltzes, contra dancing sponsored by our local folklore society, Walla Walla Friends of Acoustic Music, living history performances by several Frenchtown era characters, and songs of the fur trade and weaving workshops by the Voyageurs choral group from British Columbia, along with food, drinks and speakers.
In September 2013, the foundation organized the commemoration of the 160th anniversary of the initial Saint Rose of the Cayouse Mission on Yellowhawk Creek, and has recently erected a commemorative sign there honoring the history of the first Catholic mission in our valley.
Our latest project is relocating and restoring at the Frenchtown Historic Site a cabin of French-Canadian design that appears to have been built for a prominent tribal member shortly after the arrival of the Whitmans, which may make it the oldest existing cabin in Washington State.
Beyond that, under our partnership agreement with the Tribes, we envision eventually reconstructing the foundation and pews of the old mission church in the vicinity of the river, where we will be providing additional interpretation of the mission and parts of the battle that took place there.
The Frenchtown Historic Site is open seven days a week from dawn to dusk with no entrance fees. We invite you to visit the site and to share your reactions in our guest book. Our webpage is www.frenchtownpartners.org.