The Museum - From the Outside

There is a whole settlement at Fort Walla Walla.  The humidity around here has been, like, 18%, so I'm guessing the structures built in the late 1800's are still around and in pretty good shape for that reason.  The first one we happen onto is the blacksmith's shop.  (I actually think this one is new construction.  Shhh.)

Then the school, Union School, District 26, 1867.

They had a barbershop complete with one of the oldest barber chairs in the northwest, circa 1870.  It's out of an old Walla Walla barber shop on Alder Street.  You could get a shave and then, for an extra 25 cents, a bath!

They also had some personalized shaving mugs.  Granpa and I had just watched a TV show about antiques, and it showed some shaving mugs that were worth $20,000 now!

I could probably knock together the lil' one if I had to, the other one?  Not.  See the children seated at the table to the left?  They're school is just out of the picture.  Must have been too stuffy inside...

This woman is the poet laureate of the Baker City wagon train.  I asked if she'd send me a copy of the poem she wrote about their adventures, but I've not received anything yet.  If I ever do, I'll blog it for you.

At the livery stable we found two cool side-saddles:

The second one is a bit worse for the wear, eh?  But you see how one has two "horns" and the other only one.  I honestly believe a woman had to be a better rider than a man to stay on a horse at any speed with only one foot in the stirrup and trying to hold on to the horn(s) with her legs...

And speaking of stirrups...

I like the "platform."  I've never seen that before.  I have a small foot by today's standards: size 6 and very narrow.  But look at the size of that stirrup compared to my foot!  Even barefooted it would never fit!

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