Bus tour will visit 5 Pierce County museums

A bus tour Aug. 15 will take participants on a trip to key locations in the birth and growth of the Washington Territory.

Part of the celebration of Hudson Bay Heritage Days in DuPont, the tour will stop at five museums that tell the story of “How the West Was Fun.”

The stops will include the Nisqually Tribal Museum, which tells the story of the Native Americans who lived in the area; DuPont, where the first Hudson Bay outpost on Puget Sound launched the beginning of commerce among settlers; and Old Fort Steilacoom as it was in 1849, when it was the home of the United States Army commissioned to keep order and advance the interests of the government in the new territory. The fort also is where the Old Military Road started, parts of which are still in use today.

The tour also will visit the Steilacoom Museum. The town was the first to be incorporated in the territory. Also on the tour is the Lakewood History Museum.

There will be special programs at each stop.

This tour, created and sponsored by City of DuPont Tourism, is a nonprofit event to benefit the museums.

Participants also will have a heritage-themed lunch in DuPont with folk music historian Tony Saletan. He’s known as the man who taught his friend Pete Seeger to sing “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” and “Kumbaya” after he rediscovered this early American music.

The tour begins at 9 a.m. at the Lakewood Playhouse in Lakewood Towne Center and ends there at 4:30 p.m.

The tour is a highlight of the three-day Hudson Bay Heritage Days celebration. which starts with a golf tournament Aug. 14 and finishes with a salmon bake and many free activities on Aug. 16.

Tickets are $45, $50 after Aug. 1. They can be reserved by sending a check made out to DuPont Historical Society to Heritage Bus Tour, P.O. Box 881, DuPont WA, 98327. (Attention Dorothy Wilhelm).

Tickets also are available through brownpapertickets.

For more information, go to itsnevertoolate.com, call 253-582-4565 or send an email to dorothy@itsnevertoolate.com.

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Bus tour will visit 5 Pierce County museums."