Bits ‘N’ Pieces: Fort culinary students’ sweet take on history

When the Clark County Historical Museum asked the culinary arts program at Fort Vancouver High School to make a gingerbread replica of its building, instructor Rebecca Angell said her students were happy to oblige.

Normally the students would have been busy making a gingerbread entry for Vancouver’s Festival of Trees event. But this year, the festival didn’t include a gingerbread contest.

The museum project was every bit as challenging, however.

Recreating the 1909 building, which was a Carnegie Library, required a lot of gingerbread and detail work, which was painstaking.

“You’re working with food product that can break,” said Angell, a 42-year-old Vancouver resident.

The group put its own stamp on the project by creating the museum in a 1920s-era setting.

The gingerbread house is on display at the museum through the holidays. Angell said it will then move to the Jim Parsley Community Center.

About 10 students worked on the project.

Yacolt woman devotes two decades to piecing together family history

After two decades of work, DJ Miles of Yacolt was finally able to relax after collecting what she believes is a nearly complete story of her family’s history.

“I started sleeping better at night,” she said.

“It’s kind of addictive,” Miles said. “There’s no stopping point to this thing.”

Miles, 54, was inspired to begin her research after seeing what her grandmother, Audrey Broadley, had been able to accomplish. Broadley had spent 30 years digging for facts and gave Miles the information she’d collected. The documents were handwritten and took two years to transcribe, Miles said.

“I was overwhelmed with all the information,” Miles said.

Miles spent 20 years tracking down relatives, searching for documents and traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest to conduct interviews and fill in gaps. She eventually traced her family back through the Civil War to 1755 in New York.

“I had an interest in finding out interesting tidbits about my ancestors,” Miles said. “My grandmother had whetted my appetite with little stories.”

Two years ago, Miles decided to chronicle the history in book form to commemorate what would have been Broadley’s 100th birthday. She called the self-published family history “Prindles & Prindels of Clinton and Franklin Counties, NY and Their Allied Families.”

Vancouver museum reaches out with more free family activities

Susan Tissot, executive director of the Clark County Historical Society and Museum, set a goal to boost the public’s participation with the museum in 2009.

The poor economy was a player. The museum had to trim its staff in November 2008.

But Tissot, 49, resolved that there were also some good opportunities.

The museum had two important celebrations to share. The building, a former Carnegie Library, turned 100 in 2009, and the museum was celebrating its 45th anniversary.

She also knew families would be looking for affordable things to do.

“We stepped up our free programming,” said Tissot, who lives in Ridgefield.

The end result was good. Attendance at events roughly doubled from the previous year, reaching an estimated 18,454 visits.

Bits ’n’ Pieces appears Mondays and Fridays. If you have a story you’d like to share, call Features Editor Elisa Williams, 360-735-4561, or e-mail elisa.williams@columbian.com.