WHITMAN NATIONAL MONUM WASHINGTON The Whitman Mission site today. Looking southeast, the trees in right center are on the site of the "Mission House." The dikes of the millpond are to the right of the horses in left center. Contents Page American Missionary Interest in Oregon ... 3 The Whitmans Head Westward 5 The New Life Begins 6 Troubled Days at the Mission 8 Whitman Rides East 9 THE COVER The Immigration of 1843 9 Growth of the Mission 11 Symbolical sketch of Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman The Massacre 11 approaching Waiilatpu, the scene of their mission An Estimate of Whitman 14 endeavors among the Cayuse Indians, 1836—1847. The Mission Site Today 15 The background scenes portray various aspects in the How To Reach the Monument 15 history of the mission—buildings, religious instruction Public Service and Facilities 15 and teaching, domestic life, and agriculture. (Draw­ Administration 15 ing by Cecil J. Doty, Architect, National Park Service.) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR J. A. KRUG, Secretary NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, NEWTON B. DRURY, Director For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C, price 10 cents WHITMAN NATIONAL MONUMENT Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife, Narcissa—martyred in 1847—here ministered to the spiritual and physical needs of the Cayuse Indians and the immigrants of the Oregon Trail AIILATPU, the site of the mission found­ were taught. Kind and generous, they offered Wed in 1836 by Dr. Marcus Whitman and a haven to the traveler. Their courage and faith Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, his wife, was were confirmed by the fact that they were willing one of the noteworthy landmarks on the Oregon to give up their lives in order that an enlightened Trail. There the Whitmans symbolized the people might survive them. Through their in­ noblest of the pioneers who colonized the West. domitable spirit, energy, and determination, the Through their self-sacrifice and devotion to duty, American civilization was carried to remote the germ of Christianity was given to a heathen regions and thus contributed to our settlement people, and the first Protestant church west of of the West. As hallowed ground of the past, the Rocky Mountains was founded. By their this mission site, established as a national monu­ patience and example, the rudiments of agri­ ment by act of Congress in 1936, reminds us of culture, animal husbandry, irrigation, and letters our debt to these pioneers. American Missionary Interest in Oregon region north of 42°; and by the treaties of St. Peters­ burg in 1824 and 1825 Russia relinquished her claims UNTIL THE TREATY OF 1846 finally resolved the south of 54°40'. differences of the nations that claimed the "Oregon American claims to the Oregon country were based Country" and extended the boundary of the United upon the discovery of the Columbia River by Robert States along the 49th parallel to the Pacific Ocean, Gray (1792), the explorations of Lewis and Clark that region lying west of the Rocky Mountains and be­ (1803-1806), establishment of fur-trading posts by tween Mexican California and Russian Alaska was in a Astor's Pacific Fur Company (1811), and the relin­ sense "No-Man's Land." In 1818, a treaty of "Joint quishment of Spanish rights to the coast north of 42° Occupancy" left the Oregon country open to nationals by the Adams-Onis Treaty for the Purchase of Florida of the United States and Great Britain alike. Shortly (1819). Although it was recognized that the con­ thereafter, in 1819, Spain gave up her claims to the trol of Oregon rested in the hands of the powerful Artist's conception of Waiilatpu in 1847, looking from the south. SKETCH Itf AP OF THE OREGON TRAIE British Hudson's Bay Company, the interest of the Board in Boston. In March 1836, accompanied by United States in the region by the 182()'s was not Narcissa Prentiss Whitman (another applicant in the entirely lacking. American traders, adventurers, and field, whom he married on February 18, 18.36), the explorers had reported on the country; and as early Reverend Henry H. Spalding and his wife, Eliza Hart as 1829 the American Board of Commissioners for Spalding, and the two Indian boys, Whitman set out Foreign Missions sent the Reverend Jonathan Greene for Oregon. W. H. Gray, a lay member, joined them to investigate the potentialities of Oregon as a field on the way. for Protestant missionary activity. Most people in the eastern part of the United States Missionary interest was actually fired into action in the 18.30's regarded the West as wild and dangerous by the publication in the New York Christian Advo­ country, to be entered by only the most venturesome. cate and Journal for March 1833 of an account of the The chances for permanent settlement appeared re­ visit to St. Louis by a delegation of Flathead and Nez mote. Granted that settlement was possible, it seemed Perce Indians from west of the Rocky Mountains ask­ an impossible task to transport women and children ing for Christian teachers. The American Board, in wagons across the so-called "Great American organized by the Congregational and Presbyterian Desert," west of the Mississippi River. Thus, it was Churches in 1812, and supported by the Dutch Re­ an occasion of some historical importance when it was formed and Associate Reformed Churches, soon found decided to send missionaries with their wives across candidates ready to enter this far-off field. Among the continent to establish missions among the Indians the most willing was Dr. Marcus Whitman, who of the Oregon country. Narcissa Whitman and Eliza enlisted with the Board as a medical missionary. Spalding, the first American women to cross the conti­ Whitman, born at Rushville, N. Y., on September 4, nent, seemed unaware of the momentous nature of 1802, was well prepared for his work, having been their undertaking. The women considered the trip granted a medical degree in 1832 by the College of more in the nature of a call to duty which over­ Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of shadowed any idea of adventure. New York. The 1,900-mile journey westward from New York In the spring of 1835, Whitman accompanied the to Liberty, Mo., partly by steamboat, was compara­ Reverend Samuel Parker to the American fur traders' tively easy. The next half of the journey by land to rendezvous on the Green River, in what is now western Fort Walla Walla, some 30 miles west of the modern Wyoming. After talks with the Nez Perce and Flat­ city of Walla Walla, Wash., proved more difficult. head Indians there, these advance agents were con­ Averaging 15 to 30 miles a day, the little party vinced of the promise of the missionary field. It was ascended the Platte River and finally reached the fur agreed that while Parker continued his explorations traders' rendezvous on the Green River. Traveling in westward Whitman should return East to arrange for two wagons, they carried with them a variety of seeds the immediate establishment of a mission among the for gardens, and drove a small herd of cattle. For­ Flathead and Nez Perce. tunately, they were able to make a large part of their journey in company with fur trappers of the American The Whitmans Head Westward Fur Company. ARRIVING in New York with two Indian boys, Whit­ At the rendezvous the white women were a sensa­ man obtained speedy approval of his plans by the tion. Most of the Indians there had never seen white The confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia Rivers. Here was located Fort Walla Walla, which the Whitmans reached on September 1, 1836. women before, and it had been years since many of the way to the Columbia, the Whitmans and the the white fur trappers had seen any. Using the time Spaldings had succeeded in extending a wagon route and occasion to good advantage, Whitman and Spald­ many miles farther west than anyone had done before. ing held religious services to which the trappers thronged. At this same rendezvous, the Nez Perce The New Life Begins and Flathead reiterated their desire for the mission­ THE WHITMANS reached Fort Walla Walla, at the aries to teach them. confluence of the Columbia and Walla Walla Rivers, Having reached the rendezvous on the Green River on September 1, 1836; and the Spaldings arrived with with only the smaller of the two wagons—one had the cattle on September 3. They were now at the been left at Fort Laramie (southeastern Wyoming) — Columbia River, the symbol of their long-cherished the Whitmans and Spaldings continued westward with dreams. At Fort Walla Walla they were hospitably traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. One of the received by Pierre Pambrun, the trader of the Hud­ chiefs of the Nez Perce Indians, Tachensuates by son's Bay Company; and after resting for a few days, name, also went with them. they were sent by him in a boat down the Columbia The way became increasingly difficult. Often the to Fort Vancouver, now the site of Vancouver, Wash., heavily laden wagon overturned and was righted only which they reached on September 12. There they with great effort. Frequently the little party found it were entertained by Dr. John McLoughlin, the chief necessary to discard supplies to lighten the load. factor, who was high in his praise of the first American Finally the front axle broke. After converting the women to cross the continent. back wheels into a cart, they passed Fort Hall and While their wives stayed at Fort Vancouver, Whit­ reached Fort Boise in Idaho, where they were forced man and Spalding retraced their steps up the Columbia to abandon it.