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Christmas at Fort Vancouver makes Top 10 list

It's named one of the best National Park Service holiday celebrations

By Tom Vogt, Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter
Published: December 3, 2015, 6:01am
2 Photos
Fort volunteer Margaret Kerby, left, makes wreaths with Emily Winterham, center, and Camille Shelton at the Christmas at the Fort event last year.
Fort volunteer Margaret Kerby, left, makes wreaths with Emily Winterham, center, and Camille Shelton at the Christmas at the Fort event last year. (Photos from The Columbian files) Photo Gallery

Listed with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree and caroling in Mammoth Cave, the holiday celebration at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site is among some select Christmas company.

Christmas at Fort Vancouver is on a recent USA Today list of the 10 best Christmas celebrations in the National Park Service.

Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the nonprofit National Park Foundation, compiled the list for USA Today travel writer Larry Bleiberg.

This year, Fort Vancouver re-enactors will offer the sights and sounds of the 1840s holiday season on Dec. 12 at the reconstructed stockade.

Did You Know?

The National Park Service just announced it will waive entrance fees on 16 days in 2016:

• Jan. 18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

• April 16 through April 24: National Park Week.

• Aug. 25 through Aug. 28: National Park Service Birthday.

• Sept. 24: National Public Lands Day.

• Nov. 11: Veterans Day.

Visitors get to watch volunteers re-create the activities that were part of the holiday season during the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur-trading era.

“We’re proud we were recognized as one of the 10 best opportunities nationwide,” Superintendent Tracy Fortmann said. “This has really blossomed, and we have looked to refashion it over the years — making it family-friendly, with lots of things for children.”

Sharing a “10 best” list with something like the National Christmas Tree lighting “is not surprising, but it is gratifying,” Fortmann said.

(Today’s tree lighting near the White House includes a concert by Crosby, Stills & Nash, by the way.)

As the only celebration on the list that focuses on living history, Christmas at Fort Vancouver “is a unique event,” Fortmann said.

“Ours is very hands-on and participatory.”

Activities include making wreaths and building toys, along with caroling and dancing.

OTHER TOP 10 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE EVENTS

• National Christmas Tree Lighting, President’s Park, on the White House grounds. (Today.)

 Luminaria lighting, Mesa Verde National Park, Colo.: Small paper lanterns decorate a cliff dwelling built by the ancestral Pueblo people. (Dec. 10.)

 Cave Sing, Mammoth Cave National Park, Ky.: In 1883, local residents held the first Christmas celebration in the world’s longest cave system. (Dec. 6.)

 Raft with Santa, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Ariz.: Passengers join Santa on a trip down the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, below Hoover Dam. (Dec. 24.)

 Victorian Christmas, Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, Buffalo, N.Y.: It’s where President Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1901 after the assassination of President William McKinley. (Friday through Dec. 12.)

 Solstice Star Gazing, Pinnacles National Park, Paicines, Calif.: It’s on one of the darkest nights of the year in one of California’s darkest spots, at Bear Gulch Reservoir. (Dec. 22.)

 Wreath laying, Andersonville National Historic Site, Georgia: A national cemetery at the site of a notorious Confederate prisoner of war camp will participate in national Wreaths Across America Day. (Dec. 12.)

• Prairie Cultures Festival, Homestead National Monument, Beatrice, Neb.: The Homestead Act of 1862 opened huge swaths of federal land to new immigrants — and their holiday traditions. (Through Jan. 3.)

 Polar Express, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio: The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad trip includes a reading of the storybook that inspired the hit holiday movie. (Through Dec. 20.)

If You Go

• What: Christmas at Fort Vancouver.

• When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 12.

• Where: Fort Vancouver stockade, 1001 E. Fifth St., Vancouver.

• Cost: $5 for those 16 and older; free for those 15 and younger.

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Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter