Discover Washington: Youth Heritage Project
• Fourth annual event at various national park sites in Washington. 2016 event will be at Mount Rainier.
• Mission: Connect teachers and youth to historical places; engage students in historic preservation and conservation activities; expand tools to support teachers’ educational efforts; excite the next generation of stewards of our natural and historic resources.
• Partners: Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and National Park Service.
• On the Web: http://preservewa.org/discoverwashingtonyhp.aspx
Discover Washington: Youth Heritage Project
• Fourth annual event at various national park sites in Washington. 2016 event will be at Mount Rainier.
• Mission: Connect teachers and youth to historical places; engage students in historic preservation and conservation activities; expand tools to support teachers' educational efforts; excite the next generation of stewards of our natural and historic resources.
• Partners: Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and National Park Service.
• On the Web: <a href="http://preservewa.org/discoverwashingtonyhp.aspx">http://preservewa.org/discoverwashingtonyhp.aspx</a>
Town Hall
• What: Students present their experiences at Fort Vancouver this week via artifact storyboards, infographics, living history videos and more at a free, public event.
• When: 10 a.m. to noon today.
• Where: Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St.
When Rose Bugel-Shunra visited Pompeii and gazed at the human remains entombed in the ash of Mount Vesuvius, she was hooked on history. But more than that, she had a revelation: She knew she wanted to become an osteoarchaeologist and study human remains from archaeological sites.
“I really like mummies,” Bugel-Shunra, 17, said. “Ever since Pompeii, I’ve been enamored of history.”
Although the Port Townsend High School graduate has seen photographs of archaeology digs, she said, “I’ve never seen one live.”
She anticipated seeing her first archaeology dig at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site this week. Bugel-Shunra was among 39 high school students and four teachers from around Washington and the Portland metro area camping and studying at Fort Vancouver in the fourth annual Discover Washington: Youth Heritage Project. Students apply to attend the camp, which charges no tuition or fees. They were joined by four mentors, drawn from people working in heritage professions.
It’s a partnership between Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and National Park Service. Every year, the project visits a different national park site in the state. The first year, the camp was at Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, a National Park Service unit on Whidbey Island.
After two-man canvas tents were pitched inside the fort’s stockade, campers unrolled their sleeping bags on cots and headed to the fort’s kitchen, where a period-inspired dinner had been prepared by volunteers cooking over an open-hearth fire.
“Ultimately, we want them to have fun,” Chris Moore of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation said. “This year’s focus is archaeology and living history. Is living history an authentic way to do things? They’ll get to experience what living history looks like.”
Town Hall
• What: Students present their experiences at Fort Vancouver this week via artifact storyboards, infographics, living history videos and more at a free, public event.
• When: 10 a.m. to noon today.
• Where: Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St.
Moore stood in the chow line snaking through Fort Vancouver’s kitchen. Into his bowl, volunteer Merle Koplan ladled chicken and rice stew prepared by volunteer Bob Pritz, a professional chef. The students drank shrug, a Hudson’s Bay-era concentrated drink consisting of apple cider vinegar and a strawberry flavoring and diluted with water.
The students piled their contemporary English Spode plates and settled down at farm tables in the fort’s bake house where they chatted about the activities awaiting them.
“I heard something about a canoe,” one boy said.
“At the town hall this year, there’s going to be an audience. Like the mayor,” another said.
The week’s activities included a candlelight tour of the fort and observing the fort’s summer archaeology field school and a session on reconstructing the fort’s village and orchard.
At Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge they met up with Sam Robinson of the Chinook tribe, who led a tour of Cathlapotle, the reconstructed Chinookan plank house. Students also had a walking tour of the refuge with National Park Service archaeologists and then paddled canoes. To get a better view of the landscape, they had a dinner cruise on the Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler.
Friday students met with professionals working in the field to create project materials explaining what they had learned during the camp.
It was the third year Jules Wilson, 17, a senior at Ballard High School in Seattle, had participated in the project, but it was his first visit to Fort Vancouver. He said he was looking forward to the project’s culmination, today’s town hall at the library, where students will present observations about their experiences this week.
“In the town hall, we’ll learn important skills that will help us later in college and life,” Wilson said.
