Visit Fort Spokane

Photo from NPS: Site Entrance

One of the last frontier forts built in the West.

Yesterday was forecast to be sunny and 80 degrees in the Inland Northwest so we decided to take a long drive and wound up at Fort Spokane, Washington. It’s arguably a long drive (who am I kidding? It’s out in the middle of nowhere). But it was worth the time in the car. Fort Spokane is a beautiful site that is loaded with history.

The Fort is located where the Spokane River enters the Columbia in northwest Washington state. It’s an hour-and-ten-minute drive from Spokane (60 miles west of the city) or a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Seattle (250 miles east). Today, the fort is inside the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and is managed by the National Park Service.

In the 1860s and 70s, more and more settlers entered the Inland Northwest. Conflicts between those settlers and Native American tribes at times turned violent. Most notably the Nez Perce War (1877) and the Bannock War (1878) were fought over the forced resettlement of those tribes. In this area of Washington, the Spokane and Colville reservations had been created north of the Spokane River. Fear of those tribes leaving the reservation caused the local people to call for a permanent military presence. As a result, Fort Spokane was established in 1880. By 1884 there were twenty-five permanent structures. That included barracks, an administrative building (headquarters), a schoolroom, and an icehouse. At its height, the fort had fifty buildings housing up to three hundred soldiers, both infantry and cavalry.

Soldiers at Fort Spokane never had any engagements with the local tribes. In fact, their presence was more of a deterrence to settlers encroaching on reservation land, rather than the other way around. The Spanish-American War in 1898 required the troops stationed at Fort Spokane to be deployed elsewhere. The empty fort was turned over to the Colville Indian Agency which established an Indian Boarding School in 1900. With the establishment of local schools on the reservations, the number of students at the school fell and the school closed in 1916. Fort Spokane was then turned into a hospital and tuberculosis sanitorium. That facility closed and the site was abandoned in 1929. When the National Park Service took over the property in 1960, only four buildings were standing.

Today, the Fort Spokane Visitor Center and Museum is open Thursday through Monday, 9:30 am to 5 pm. While the grounds are open year-round, the Visitor Center is open seasonally from Memorial Day to Labor Day. There is no entrance fee. Tip: Google Maps will try to have you turn onto a walking path. Turn onto the paved road under the white sign for the fort.

Your first destination from the parking lot is the Visitors Center and Museum. The building used to be the fort’s guardhouse. It is full of displays and artifacts covering the history of the site and the region. There is also a friendly and helpful park ranger on duty. It’s a small museum but packed with a large number of photographs from when the site was a military base and then an Indian School. The Visitors Center is one of only three buildings on the site (along with the mule barn and magazine). The real quality experience is taking the walking paths around the site of the fort. Some waysides tell you what building used to stand in each location along the way. Prepare to walk a mile or more. It was a large military installation in its day. On a beautiful early summer day, you might find that this was the best part of the visit.

There is no doubt that Fort Spokane is an “out of the way” destination. I must emphasize that there are no amenities for miles. You might want to pack a lunch. Definitely bring some water. That being said, there are other attractions in this part of the state. Grand Coulee Dam is about fifty miles away. There are numerous camping, fishing, and hiking opportunities along the Spokane and Columbia Rivers. And who knows? You might find yourself driving between Seattle and Spokane, yet again, and finally decide to take the road less traveled.

References:

NPS Website for the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and Fort Spokane.

Anna Harbine, “Welcome to Fort Spokane,” Spokane Historical, accessed June 7, 2024, https://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/354.

Wikipedia contributors, "Fort Spokane," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, accessed June 7, 2024,  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fort_Spokane&oldid=1173379135.

Veterans Visit National Parks for Free (and some Antietam pictures)

We visited the Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland and learned that veterans get access to National Parks and other Federal Public Lands for free. Forever.

Last week (September 17^th) was the 161^st anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. We have visited many times. Antietam, located next to the small town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, is my favorite Civil War battlefield. Antietam has historical significance in that the battle has a combined casualty count of 22,727 killed, wounded, and missing. That makes Antietam (or Sharpsburg to the Confederates) the highest one-day casualty count in American military history. It was the impetus for Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which changed the Federal cause for fighting the war from preserving the Union to ending slavery. Moreover, it is an easy battlefield to view the terrain and understand the flow of the battle. Climb the observation tower. It’s worth it. And finally, the battlefield park is more than a park or a tourist attraction. It’s hallowed ground where thousands of Americans fought and died. That being said, Antietam is also a beautiful place to go for a walk and enjoy the fall weather.

I was going to talk about the battle and the remodel of the Visitor Center. Also, I wanted to point out how cool it is to visit a battlefield as near to its anniversary as possible. That way you have good odds of similar weather and you get an idea of what the foliage looked like at the time of the battle. Instead, I wanted to make sure that you are aware of the new program that allows free access to active military, veterans, and Gold Star family members.

It was time to renew my annual National Park Pass. I was thinking that I’d score on that senior discount this year (one of the few advantages of getting old). When we walked up to the counter and told the Ranger on duty what we wanted, he asked if I was a veteran. I am, I said, and so is my wife. He then went on to explain that since last November, the National Park Service has been providing free lifetime access to NPS and other Federal lands to active military, veterans, and Gold Star families. Would I like an “America the Beautiful” lifetime pass for free? Yes, please.

Here are the official rules. To get your pass you need a Veteran ID. You can obtain a digital Veteran ID from the VA’s website. (When they started producing those, I had no idea. I’ve obviously been asleep at the wheel on these things over the years.) The NPS is not supposed to accept your DD214 as proof of your veteran status. They need to see your Veteran ID. To obtain the Veteran ID you can use a copy of your DD214. Sound bureaucratic? Hey, it’s the government, and if you are a veteran then this Catch-22 logic should make you feel right at home. But it’s worth the trouble. If you have your Veteran ID, then not only can you use it to get a lifetime pass to National Parks, but there are a bunch of other perks and discounts out there for veterans (like the ten percent discount at Cabela’s). So get your Veteran ID from the VA website (links below), then go in person to any NPS site and pick up your lifetime pass.

Enjoy some pictures of the battlefield from our trip last Wednesday. If you are looking for background on the Battle of Antietam, I have “Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam” by Stephen Sears on my shelf. Get out and enjoy a historic site while the weather is nice. Maybe I’ll see you at Valley Forge next week. 😉

Link: Information on National Park Passes

Link: VA website to obtain a Veteran ID

Mary Hays, AKA: Molly Pitcher

The Molly Pitcher Monument

Last week I posted about Hannah Duston and her escape from the Indians. Another monument to a strong female historical figure is the Molly Pitcher grave and statue in the Old Public Graveyard in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Molly Pitcher is one of those stories that can be filed under the heading of “If it ain’t true it outta be.” Of course, that’s my Texas heritage coming out. But I’m convinced that there really is only one Molly Pitcher, her real name was Mary Hays, and she’s buried in Carlisle.

Here's her story: During the American Revolution, Mary Hays followed her husband, William Hays, to war, as a large number of women did. In those days, women would follow the army to care for their soldier family members in a variety of ways, like cooking, sewing, laundry, or assisting with medical care. One other task these volunteers provided was bringing water to the soldiers during training, or even during battle. These women earned the nickname “Molly Pitcher.” Molly is a way of saying Mary, and Pitcher of course is for the pitcher of water they’d carry.

The current monument is from 1916.

William Hays enlisted in Proctor’s 4^th Pennsylvania Artillery in 1777. Mary first went with the battery to Valley Forge, then the next year to the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse in New Jersey. This is not disputed. During the battle, Mary was bringing water to the artillerymen in her husband’s battery. When her husband fell, either from a wound or heatstroke, Mary took over his job, using a ramrod to swab and load the canon.

Legend has it that during the battle she was seen working with the gun’s crew by General George Washington. The General supposedly congratulated her and made her a sergeant as a reward for her bravery. None of that can be proven, although Mary reportedly went by the nickname “Sergeant Molly” for the rest of her life. However, in 1830 a war veteran’s narrative was published that described the incident of a woman taking over for her husband on an artillery piece during the Battle of Monmouth. In it, the writer says that a British cannon ball passed between the woman’s legs, tearing through her skirt but leaving her unharmed.

After the battle, Mary Hays and her husband returned to their home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. William Hays died in 1786. Mary later married again, to a man named John McCauley. In 1822, Mary was granted a pension by the state of Pennsylvania for her service. Mary died in 1832 and is buried in the Old Public Graveyard as Mary McCauley. The current Molly Pitcher monument was erected in 1916.

Union troops were behind this wall
during a Civil War skirmish.

There are a number of Molly Pitcher monuments. Some are in the form of street names, murals, and even business names. I believe that Molly Pitcher is a moniker given to women who followed their husbands to war during the Revolution. Mary Hays is the personification of that. Much like Rosie the Riveter was a name for women working in the defense industry during WWII and Naomi Parker was the inspiration for that. However, there is still controversy. You can read a Wikipedia article that does not question the existence of Molly Pitcher. An article on the American Battlefield Trust website, says that she is a composite character, made up of the many Molly Pitchers. Yet finally, there is an article from Smithsonian that says she probably never existed.

If you ever get the chance to walk around Carlisle, please do. Lots of history there from the Revolution to the Civil War. Take a look at the Old Public Graveyard on South Street at Bedford. It’s an interesting place, with the oldest burial from 1757. The east wall protected approximately 200 Union soldiers when Jeb Stuart’s Confederate cavalry raided Carlisle during the Gettysburg Campaign. They traded shots with Confederate skirmishers who were deployed in what would become Letort Park, on the other side of the creek. But that’s a story for a future post. 

Hannah Duston and Two Massacres

Hannah Duston's Capture and Escape from the Indians

The Hannah Duston statue is in
Haverhill, Massachusetts.

I did not make a special post for Women’s History Month last March. But I should have written about Hannah Duston (or sometimes it’s spelled Dustin). When I told my wife about Duston - the first woman in the United States to have a statue erected in her honor - she said, “This woman sounds like a badass.” I’d have to agree with that, based simply on her story. But the memory of Hannah Duston is also an example of how we interpret our history through the years.

I really enjoy it when I catch myself in some preconceived notion. When you think of Puritan settlers in 1600s Massachusetts, do you think of a bunch of devoutly religious, passive people, kind of like the pilgrim mythology? Me too! Then while I was on the west coast, I read the story of Hannah Duston in the book “Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston's Captivity and Revenge in Colonial America” by Jay Atkinson. That book dissuaded me from my preconceptions and when we were recently passing through Massachusetts, I just had to take a look at the area where this story took place.

On the base of the statue you'll 
find a panel that shows Thomas
Duston defending his children.

First, here's the story in a nutshell:
Haverhill, Massachusetts, is on the north side of the Merrimack River, just 14 miles west of the Atlantic, or thirty-five miles north of Boston as the crow flies. Puritan settlers first arrived as early as 1640. Almost fifty years later, when our story takes place, it was still the edge of civilization, assuming the perspective of the English settlers. One of those settler families was the Dustons: Thomas and Hannah and their nine children.

During King William’s War (1688 – 1697), the governor of New France encouraged Native American tribes to raid English settlements. On March 15, 1697, Abenaki Indians from Quebec, made a raid on Haverhill. A “garrison house,” that was more heavily fortified (think brick, stone, or heavy logs) than your average farmhouse was on a hill above the Duston farm, but some distance away. As they had been instructed, eight of the Duston children headed that way when they heard the raid begin. Hannah, age 40 at the time, had given birth to her ninth child a couple of weeks earlier. She had a difficult birth and was still recovering. Present that morning was a neighbor/nurse, Mary Neff. Husband Thomas was working on building a brick garrison house of his own about half a mile away. When he heard the gunfire and whoops of Indians, he mounted his horse and headed for his house.

Another panel shows the killing
of the Indians.

When Thomas got to his house, he saw Indians heading across his fields. He knew that they would be able to catch his other children heading for the garrison house, so he grabbed his rifle and went to get between the Indians and his kids. Hannah, Mary, and the newborn were to sneak out a back door and make a run for it on their own. Thomas was successful in blocking the Indians who were after his kids. They withdrew when Thomas and the children made it to within rifle range of the three militiamen who were in the garrison house. Thomas borrowed a fresh horse and headed back with one of the militiamen to find his wife, but it was too late.

The Abenaki killed 27 colonists and took 14 captives, two of those were Hannah and Mary. The Indians took them on a speed march away from any potential pursuers. If any of the captives slowed them down, they were killed. Hannah’s newborn was stripped from her arms and killed in front of her. On the trail she and Mary received help in their survival from a fourteen-year-old boy named Samuel Lennardson who had been taken from Worcester, Massachusetts up to a year prior and had some modicum of trust from their captors.

The Duston Garrison House.

After weeks on the trail, other captives had all been killed or traded away. Hannah, Mary, and Samuel were left with a family group of two warriors, three adult women, and seven children. Along the trail Hannah had, along with the horrors she had witnessed, been told that her husband and children had all been killed and that when they arrived at their destination she would be tortured and either killed or sold into slavery. While camping on an island in the Merrimack River near present-day Boscawen, New Hampshire, the Indians let their guard down and all went to sleep. One version says that the warriors shared a bottle and passed out. Regardless, Hannah enlisted Mary and Samuel to participate. After the Indians went to sleep, they were able to get ahold of hatchets. Hannah and Samuel each killed one of the men while they slept. The three then proceeded to attack the women and children. Hannah left one of the children alive, a boy who had been kind to her on the trail. He subsequently fled. One of the women was severely wounded but also escaped. Hannah scalped the bodies in order to collect a bounty offered by the colony and to prove her story. The three captives made their escape in one of the Indian canoes, heading down the river to an English settlement.

The Aftermath
Hannah never wrote down her story, nor did Mary or Samuel. Hannah died in Haverhill sometime between 1736 and 1738. However, several people have written the story, claiming that they interviewed Hannah for the details. The most prominent of these was Cotton Mather. We know that she really did take the Indian’s scalps because her husband petitioned the government of the Massachusetts Colony to collect the bounty.

About a hundred years after Hannah’s death, her story was resurrected and she became a heroine. Some historians believe the story resonated with the public because of the Indian removal efforts that began in the 1820s. The first statue in her honor was erected in 1874 in Boscawen, New Hampshire (the site of her escape). The 35-foot statue depicts her with a hatchet in one hand and scalps in the other. In 1879 a statue of Hannah was placed in the GAR park in Haverhill. This one has Hannah holding a hatchet, but she’s pointing with the other hand as if to say, “You were bad.” On the sides of the base are depictions of the four events in her story: her capture, her husband’s defense of the children, killing her captors, and returning in a canoe. Today, some question why Hannah Duston was elevated to hero status, particularly considering that she killed six children along with the adults, like the tone of this article from Smithsonian. I’m afraid I don’t agree. You just can’t judge someone in those circumstances through the lens of our modern morality. And although it’s not right to say “they did it too” as an excuse, one source said that many of the settlers killed in the Abenaki raid were children. And what about Hannah's newborn?

By the way, the garrison house that Thomas was working on got finished. You can visit it, just outside of Haverhill. Like visiting a Civil War battlefield, when you’re stopping off at Dunkin’s and fighting the going to work traffic, it’s hard to visualize what it was like there in the 1600s. The Hannah Dustin statue and the Duston Garrison House help us remember. 

Changes to the C & O Canal NHP

Picture from 2011 post. You can
see the missing wall on the side
of the aqueduct. Click on the
picture to see a larger version.

We revisit the C & O Canal National Historical Park in Williamsport, Maryland.

After a ten-year stint on the west coast we’ve returned to the mid-Atlantic and the first thing we did was visit some of our old haunts and favorite historical sites. One of the first places we went to was the C & O Canal National Historical Park site in Williamsport, Maryland. I did a post on the canal towpath and the park back in 2011, as well as a post about the Paw Paw Tunnel, located up the canal about thirty miles. Give that first post a read to find out the history of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and what it is today. Here is a pretty good video that will also give you a rundown on the history of the canal.

An aqueduct is a bridge
for water.

Okay, if you didn’t go to those sources above, let’s review. Before roads and railroads, passengers and freight were moved by water. To conquer unnavigable rivers, canals were built that included aqueducts and locks to cross rough terrain and move boats through rises in elevation. These canal projects were a product of the industrial revolution and Europe got a big head start on the United States. Our most famous, the Erie Canal in New York state, opened in 1825 (you have the song stuck in your head now, don’t you?). The C & O Canal got a late start, not opening until 1850, navigating the Potomac River from Georgetown in Washington D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland. It continued to operate until the 1920s, so through the efforts of some dedicated individuals, we have a well-preserved example of these kinds of narrow boat canals AND a 184-mile recreational trail for biking and hiking.

Now there is water in the
aqueduct at Williamsport.

So what changed since I was in Williamsport a decade ago? First off, there is a new park headquarters building just up the hill from the visitors center and the turning pond. This makes sense to me, as Williamsport is just about midway between Cumberland and Georgetown. They have also restored the aqueduct over Conococheague Creek where it flows into the Potomac. That needs a little more explanation.

An aqueduct is built to carry water. In the case of the C & O, the aqueducts were built to carry boats over existing rivers. When I visited ten years ago, the aqueduct in Williamsport was missing a wall and visitors used it like a bridge to cross Conococheague Creek. The old canal had been filled in so you could walk from the visitors center around the turning pond and immediately be on the towpath. Now the aqueduct has been restored. The canal was dug out so that it connects to the turning pond, fills the aqueduct, and runs maybe forty yards beyond the north end of the aqueduct. This is a great improvement. My wife shared with me that before the improvement, she couldn’t visualize what the aqueduct did, since it looked like, and was used as, a bridge. Now that it has been repaired and has water in it, its function is clear.

That small portion of the
canal connects to the 
turning pond.

One more plug: I also think it’s a good place to put the park headquarters as Williamsport is (again in my humble opinion) the best place to visit the C & O if you only have a day to spend there. In Williamsport there is a turning pond, which you only find at the two ends of the path. There is a restored aqueduct with water. There is the elevated railroad bridge to see. Less than half a mile walk down the towpath is Lockhouse 44 with an excellent example of a canal lock. (If you need to know how one of these locks works, here’s a video I found that shows how one works, it’s from a canal in Great Britain, but I chose it to share with you because it looks very similar to the C & O.) And for a bonus, there is some Civil War history as well. Confederate forces crossed the Potomac here and in other locations along the canal during both campaigns in the north. Williamsport is an hour and a half drive from Washington D.C., less than an hour from Gettysburg, and only fifteen minutes from Antietam Battlefield. If you’re planning a trip in the area, consider adding this piece of history to your itinerary.

Less than a half mile walk down
the towpath is Lock #44.

A walkway on the elevated 
railroad bridge allows access to
the towpath.

There is a new park headquarters
up the hill, but the Visitors Center
is still in the barn by the pond.

The towpath trail is pet
friendly. Elvis the Corgi
approves. Please stay 
leashed and pick up. ;-)

Fort Point National Historic Site, San Francisco

The Civil War-Era Fort under the Golden Gate Bridge

Did you know that there was a Civil War-era fort under the Golden Gate Bridge? I realize that at times I can be slow on the uptake, but I didn’t know about Fort Point until just a few years ago. And I grew up in California! How could I not notice? I’ve driven over the bridge several times in my life. The first time way back in high school. When I was in the army, I even flew a helicopter from Camp Roberts to the Presidio in San Francisco – didn’t notice it then. Finally, Fort Point came on the radar several years ago when I visited the Presidio as a tourist. Who knew? 

The history of the site goes back to the late 1700s. The Spanish were worried about encroachment into California by Russia and Great Britain. They built a fort on a cliff at the southern point of the narrowest entry to the bay. That would later be known as the “Golden Gate.” The fort, Castillo de San Joaquin, was completed in 1794, was made of adobe walls, and mounted from 9 to 13 cannons. When Mexico gained independence from Spain, the Mexican army moved to Sonoma and let the fort deteriorate.

At some point during the Spanish and Mexican eras, the cliff that the fort was located on was known as the Punta del Cantil Blanco (point of the white cliff) became known as Punta del Castillo (Castle Point). After the Mexican-American war and the United States gained control of California in 1848, the name was carried over as “Fort Point.” Soon the Gold Rush was in full swing, California became a state in 1850, and the United States now needed to protect the bay. A series of defensive fortifications were proposed that included Alcatraz Island, Fort Mason (located adjacent to Fisherman’s Wharf), and Fort Point.

The construction on Fort Point began in 1853. The first task was to knock down the cliff and build the fort near sea level. The idea was that guns placed in the first level of the fort could skip cannonballs along the ocean and hit ships at the waterline. Two hundred former gold miners were employed on the construction of the fort for eight years, finishing it in time to be garrisoned just before the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The fort is constructed with seven-foot-thick walls and three levels, or tiers, that built with a reinforcing arch. The fort could aim 126 guns at any ship passing through the narrow Golden Gate, although during the Civil War there were only 55.

Fort Point never fired a shot in anger. Time and technology made the fort obsolete. Navies of the world moved on to ships made of iron and steel. By the 1890s the smoothbore cannons at Fort Point were scrapped in favor of rifled, larger, coast artillery emplaced in concrete batteries at Fort Winfield Scott on the west side of the Presidio. Fort Point was used as a barracks for a time until it fell into disrepair. Recommendations to have the fort demolished in the 1920s were turned down. The fort was left standing even as the Golden Gate Bridge was built over it in the 1930s. After World War II, efforts were made to preserve the fort. In October of 1970, President Nixon declared Fort Point a National Historic Site.

Read complete histories of Fort Point at the National Park Service website, the Presidio San Francisco website, or on Wikipedia.

Fort Point is well worth the trip alone. But certainly, be sure to put it on your itinerary when you plan a trip to San Francisco. I enjoyed it more than exploring the coastal artillery batteries at the Presidio. Those coastal defenses built in the early twentieth century are common. I’ve also visited them at the mouth of the Columbia River and protecting the entrance to the Puget Sound. But on the west coast, Fort Point is the only one of its kind. There are no other Civil War-era forts, well preserved, on the west coast. I was fascinated by the architecture of the fort and the technology for the time that it was built. During the summer months there might be living historians or reenactor groups at the fort. Check with the NPS website. Oh, and bring a jacket. You know the old joke: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” 😎

The California State Railroad Museum

Memories from a pre-covid trip...

Last year I was teaching high school in California and we were sent home to conduct “distance learning” on March 13^th and my old school is still at home trying to teach and learn via the Internet. That’s getting close to a whole year. Now, this post is not about the merits of distance learning or whether students should be in the classroom during a surge in the pandemic. When I decided to share some pictures of the California State Railroad Museum I was reminded that people in professions other than hospitality and travel are having a hard time during this crisis as well. There are a good number of museum workers at home too.

What I’m saying is that there is definitely a crisis for those working in museums and historic sites. Last summer there was an article in Forbes that said that the pandemic could close up to a third of all museums in the United States. Permanently. I was struck by this statistic when I checked in on the California State Railroad Museum’s website and found out that they had been closed completely since November 2020.

I hope that with the increasing availability of vaccines and through our own mitigation efforts, we will be able to travel to historic sites and museums once again. In the meantime, let me share some pictures from a pre-COVID-19 trip to Sacramento when we were able to walk through the museum and look at some trains up close and personal.

The California State Railroad Museum is in Old Town Sacramento, just north of where Interstate 5 and 80 intersect. It’s the historic waterfront of the Sacramento River. We did a blog post about our visit to Old Town Sacramento back before the pandemic. One of the main attractions is of course the railroad museum, but there are many shops, restaurants, and other attractions for non-train enthusiasts (is there such a thing?). In the summer months, you will also find historical reenactors encamped in the state park.

Since Sacramento was the western terminus for the First Transcontinental Railroad, the museum devotes an enjoyable and educational exhibit to this feat of engineering (that would be building a railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in the 1860s.) I especially enjoyed the exhibit on the heyday of passenger travel. If I did not make it clear, this museum is full of trains. So you will get to not only see the trains but also climb on them and go inside them. Another exhibit I liked was the homage to toy trains and the vast collection they have on display.

The California State Railroad Museum is a first-class, fun place to visit. Very kid-friendly. It rates a place on my “places I’d go to again” list. While it is currently closed for the pandemic (which has hit California especially hard over the holidays), you can still enjoy the museum online. Visit their website and maybe like their Facebook page, which is full of great pictures. You can still support museums with a cash donation or buy something from the museum store if they are available online (which the railroad museum is). 

Just remember that hard times don’t last. And if we never had it rough, we wouldn’t know when we had it good. But for now, enjoy some pictures of trains.

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park

We decided to vacation in northern California a bit while on the way to Oregon this summer. While very scenic and awe inspiring (think big redwood trees), I was still able to fit in a little history tourism. I had just started the book on Ulysses Grant so we couldn't pass through Eureka without stopping off to visit Fort Humboldt, where Grant was stationed early in his army career.

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park is the site of the fort that was occupied from 1853 to 1870. The fort was built overlooking

Humboldt Bay to provide protection to gold seekers and arriving settlers from the local Native Americans. Captain Ulysses Grant was stationed here for a few months in 1854. At its peak, the fort had 14 buildings arranged around a parade field. For the troops stationed here, the duty was dull and boring.

We visited the park in early June and the weather was still very cool compared to the Central Valley of California where we had just come from. Being the "morning people" that we are, we arrived just before they opened the gate. Actually, it's a good thing we had Google Maps giving us the step-by-step directions, as the signage directing you to the site was not obvious. The gates opened at eight o'clock. The visitors center and the two buildings of the fort that remain were not scheduled to open until nine. We spent an hour and a half walking around the park, starting with a display of logging machinery that is co-located with the fort. The park is certainly well tended, but not well visited by all appearances. We pretty much had the park to ourselves with the exception of a local walking her dog and some high school kids on bicycles that I'm pretty sure were ditching the last day or two of school.

The buildings at the fort are the original hospital and a reconstructed surgeon's quarters. The hospital building has some displays on the history of the fort, but unfortunately they were not open during the time we were there. I guess that the park is staffed by volunteers and they were having a late morning. It was disappointing, but the main thing to see when you visit a historic site is actually the location and the lay of the land. The fort is on a bluff and today the city of Eureka has grown around the bay that the fort overlooks. It is obvious that the fort is defensible with a small number of soldiers (I believe that less than 50 were typically at the fort), and the view allows for easily spotting arriving ships.

Probably the best part of visiting Fort Humboldt State Historic Park is knowing that you are walking on the same ground as U.S. Grant, George Crook, and other noteworthy soldiers from the Civil War period. You also gain a glimpse into what their living conditions were while serving in what was then still a far off place, well removed from the civilization in the East that these soldiers were used to.

Next stop in this little "Grant Pilgrimage" I've got going on will be

a visit to Fort Vancouver, another frontier outpost where Grant served before his civilian hiatus from the army.