WASHOUGAL — This year, all Washougal fourth-grade students will have the opportunity to visit the Two Rivers Historical Museum in Washougal, courtesy of a grant from Bill and Becky Smead. The field trip allows students to visit the museum’s rich display of local items, which includes exhibits and stories focused on Native peoples, industry, farming, household items and toys, and more. Gause Elementary students attended the field trip on Jan. 28. Hathaway, Cape Horn-Skye and Columbia River Gorge Elementary fourth-graders have tours scheduled later in the year.
Students explored displays of mining and timber industry equipment from the 1800s and 1900s, seeing hand-powered tools and machinery used by early Washougal residents. They watched a demonstration of weaving on a 100-year-old traveling loom. Other displays included cookware, communication tools, and toys that children would have played with more than 100 years ago. The museum includes historic artifacts from local Indigenous peoples including the Cowlitz, Klickitat, Quinault, Salish, Chinook, and Makah tribes.
Columbia Play Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing exploratory play for children, was also onsite and led the students in a hands-on wool weaving project.
In addition to the field trip, there are plans for local Chinook Indian Nation Tribal Council member Sam Robinson to speak at an assembly at each school for the fourth-grade students. His presentations will continue the learning with an authentic and more detailed look into the lives of Indigenous people of the area, past and present.
