Chapter Five: Resource Management

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Introduction

Management of the cultural and natural resources is an important administrative responsibility. The 1986 "Resource Management Plan and Environmental Assessment" lists Whitman Mission National Historic Site's most significant cultural and natural resources:

1. The historic ground itself, the site of the Mission is a National Register property with many artifacts in situ.
2. The restored Mill Pond and a portion of the original irrigation system, the Great Grave, the Memorial Shaft on the hill, and the section of the Oregon Trail are on the List of Classified Structures.
3. The re-established orchard, the river Oxbow, the cemetery used by the Indians, pioneers and emigrants, and the Alice Clarissa Memorial are within the boundaries.
4. Over 10,000 irreplaceable artifacts are in the study collection and all are direct touchstones with our enabling legislation.
5. Several thousand historic and modern photographs, along with Park library and archival files, make up the most complete records of the site's history.
6. The Shaft Hill provides a surrounding view of uncluttered landscape. Rolling eastward up to the Blue Mountains, the Walla Walla Valley has many visual characteristics unchanged from the time of the Whitmans. [1]

This chapter addresses administration's role in preserving these cultural and natural resources. The first section covers cultural resource management plus archeology, because archeological discoveries influenced the ways in which superintendents managed these resources; the second section covers natural resource management.