Photos
The celebration has grown in popularity over the years, said Lee McDonald, president of the DuPont Historical Society. About 75 people attended the celebration in its first year, but adding a salmon bake and boosting the number of exhibits has helped to grow attendance, she said. Those in attendance included visitors from Belfair, Bremerton and Lake Stevens, McDonald said.
The focal point of the celebration, though, is the 19.96-acre DuPont site that was once occupied by Fort Nisqually, a trading post established by the Hudson’s Bay Co., a fur-trading business based in London that had operations throughout Canada and the Northwest, historian Drew Crooks said Sunday.
Crooks was on hand to give tours of the property, he said.
Fort Nisqually got its start in 1833, but is better known for moving to the 20-acre DuPont site in 1843 so it could be closer to Sequalitchew Creek, a water source vital to the fort, Crooks said. The fort occupied the property from 1843 to 1870 and was known for integrating well into society at that time, which included early settlers and the Nisqually Tribe, he said.
“It was a place where people met and worked together,” Crooks said. The fort buildings squeezed onto the site, but surrounding it was a thriving neighborhood with other businesses, he said.
The land is vacant today and the fort buildings since have been moved to the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum at Point Defiance Park. In addition to the salmon bake, about 15 history-related exhibits had been set up by local history buffs for the celebration.
One of those history buffs was Jill Weatherford, a longtime volunteer at the Living History Museum, who attended wearing an outfit worn by an upper-class woman of the 1850s. She wore a neck-to-toe dress, with a ribbon around her neck, and a straw bonnet to protect her from the sun. She also was seated at a table, under the trees, working on needlepoint, a hobby for women of that era, Weatherford said. On the table were examples of stoneware plates and mugs from that period, she said.
In school, Weatherford said she had no interest in history because it seemed to be nothing more than names and dates. But as soon as she could connect history to actual people, it came alive for her, she said.
“You get to know the personalities,” Weatherford said.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/bizblog
