Remember when I said I planned all our field trips in advance for the school year? Well, this past Saturday we got to go on our first big field trip! So, Field Trip Friday, became Field Trip Saturday because this one was a long one and we needed Husband there to help.
We are studying early modern history this year and many of the preserved historical sites in Washington fall into that time period. In Steilacoom we combined region and religious history by visiting the oldest Catholic church in Washington!
Two blocks down the hill is a house that is an original from 1852 built by Nathaniel Orrs and was only ever lived in by his family. After electricity and plumbing was added virtually nothing else was changed. His son lived in the house until he died in 1973 at which point he donated the house. Much of the furniture was built by Nathaniel too. Check out his story here!
Behind the Orr house is the orchard Nathaniel planted with the knowledge he gained in Oregon. Many of the trees are the original trees he put in the ground! All the other trees were planted from the seeds from original trees replacing any that died, making it a heritage orchard! We were encouraged to pick as many pears, apples, and plums as we wanted. I resisted the urge to pick all the trees clean, although they would have welcomed it as they said they don’t have many visitors.
Next door to the Orr house is the Steliacoom museum. We had an incredible time there. It is small and run by the greatest volunteers who led us through all the amazing artifacts and history of the Orr family and Steliacoom. Behind the museum is Nathaniel’s workshop. He was the only wagon maker in the Puget Sound and his shop was amazing! Here there were more volunteers who gave the kids a fun hide and seek quiz and the prize for finishing was getting one of Nathaniel’s original nails!
Those volunteers were so kind and truly care about their town’s history. I was quite touched and inspired. Did you know Steliacoom was once going to be the capitol?!
After our amazing historical adventure we stopped by Dutch Brothers and played at a nearby playground- which was huge and built in the style of the old Fort of Steliacoom. On our way home we had a great time chatting about what we liked best on our adventure. We had dinner and watched a movie the kids earned by working on meals during the week. Once the kiddos were all asleep Husband and I ended the evening by having a diy pizza date night to celebrate getting meals done that morning(!) and our epic field trip.
If you have the chance, you should take a trip to Steilacoom! It was well worth the time and really made history come to life for us.