• bible sitting next to a teapot

    Whitman Mission

    National Historic Site Washington

Cellar Wall of First House and Found Objects

Exposed adobe wall. Individual bricks are visible.
Close-up of cellar wall at First House, showing the header-stretcher method of laying up the brick. About halfway up the wall, which is 4 1/2 feet high, bulges in from 3 to 4 inches, the result of the floods of 1837 and 1838.
NPS photo
 
Portion of an iron burr and a teaspoon.
Iron burr for a coffee mill - possibly used by the missionaries to grind flour, and a teaspoon with the initials of Mrs. Whitman's parents engraved on the handle.
NPS photo
 
From: " A Report on the Second Season's Excavations at Waiilatpu" by Thomas R. Garth. 1948.
 
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Did You Know?

picture of sawmill sign

The mission at Waiilatpu had a sawmill supplying it with needed cut lumber. It was located in the Mill Creek drainage. Lumber was needed for the split rail fences and finishing the houses built at the mission.