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Historic Fort Steilacoom
9601 Steilacoom Blvd SW
Lakewood WA 98498
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Old-fashioned Independence Day Weekend: Celebrate with family activites from the 1850s on July 2, 2023
/in News/by fortsteilacoomFrom 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 2, you can experience a July Fourth weekend through activities at some of the oldest buildings in Washington. Living history re-enactors will host children’s activities and demonstrate aspects of pioneer life ranging from foods of the time to tinsmithing.
This is a great chance to learn what pioneer life was like in one of the few remaining authentic pioneer settings in Washington.
There will be games and fun and learning.
Like our nation, the entire event is free. You won’t pay for anyone you gather to enjoy the fun and celebrate history and heritage with us.
We do gratefully accept donations. The Historic Fort Steilacoom Association maintains four of the oldest buildings still standing in Washington. We do this entirely with volunteer support. Fort Steilacoom is the only ‘first fort’ of its kind in the United States that is entirely managed by volunteers and ungoverned by an educational or parks institution. And our four 165-year-old buildings need as much or more maintenance as a home that you’d live in.
But it’s up to you if you want to donate! Come join us 1 to 4 on Sunday, July 2, to celebrate the holiday and get hands-on with history.
Be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook page for any updates on this event; we’ll post full lists of what activities and fun to expect.
A note about our location: Please use our street address to find the fort. 9601 Steilacoom Blvd SW, Lakewood, WA 98498. Don’t use the name of the museum in your phone because it might lead you to the wrong place. Please don’t be the person driving around and around inside Fort Steilacoom Park looking for us. The fort is not in the park. The fort and the parade grounds are across the street on the ‘fr0nt lawn’ of Western State Hospital. When you enter Western State’s grounds at the main entrance, turn right.
Opinion: Fort Steilacoom deserves a landlord whose mission embraces history
/in News/by fortsteilacoomThe following is based on an opinion column from our board president, Walter Neary, printed in the summer 2023 journal for HFSA members:
This has been a historic year for Fort Steilacoom, as we make plans for a brighter future. I’m very proud of our current board for recognizing the truth of a famous quote: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
This quote occurred to me a couple years ago, when I had the pleasure of returning after exactly 20 years as president of the board of Historic Fort Steilacoom.
What I saw is the challenges we faced in 2021 were the same challenges we faced in 2001.
I could go on. You get the idea. When I joined the board in 2021, we had the same idea we had in 2001: That the problem was us, to paraphrase Taylor Swift.
Our current board has embraced a new way of thinking—the problem is Washington.
Washington is the only state in the nation that has put its most historic buildings – ‘first fort’ under the management of a mental hospital and social services agency.
Washington is the only state in the nation that asks a band of volunteers to pay for, maintain, and interpret the complex stories of a first U.S. Army fort. We’ve begun to involve Tribes through our board to address some challenging questions of interpretation. But we have a long way to go.
Suppose Washington treated its schools the same way it treats Puget Sound’s first fort. I suppose we should be glad Washington didn’t put all the public school lands under the management of DSHS. I mean, that model could save a ton of money.
And it’s likely education would suffer. Maybe—education takes expertise and investment. The fact of the matter is, based on what we see in 49 other states, a first fort needs a parent organization that knows something about education.
The search for rational governance begins
We first articulated this perspective in a guest column kindly shared by The News Tribune. Then, advocates for history and champions of clear thinking offered perspectives. Feliks Banel did a thorough look at the subject for KIRO. Knute Berger wrote a supportive note in his newsletter, Mossback.
At the same time, visionaries within the City of Lakewood have recognized what you already know as a member: Fort Steilacoom is an amazing resource. Fort Steilacoom provides:
And you can walk through four buildings configured as they were in 1858. Where else can you do that in Puget Sound? It’s a chance to learn about the daily life of pioneers in buildings that actually witnessed daily life of pioneers.
I remain hopeful the fort finds a landlord with expertise in telling these stories, whether that’s the City of Lakewood, or another parks or museum agency. Fort Steilacoom and its volunteers could do amazing things if we had the same governance found in the other 49 states.
Honoring the current landlord
Before concluding, I want to make a point about Western State and DSHS. In no way, shape, or form, is this initiative a rejection of the many ways they have supported Fort Steilacoom. We’re just looking for an appropriate landlord.
In fact, I think we’re the ones who respect DSHS. Let me explain.
The state of Washington thinks DSHS has nothing better to do than take care of four of the most historic buildings that stand together in Puget Sound.
That’s rather insulting.
That’s like me coming to your workplace while you’re on the job and saying, “Hey, you don’t have anything better to do. Go to Safeway right now and grab me some things!”
I don’t know about you, but I’d be insulted by such a request. My work must be unimportant to you.
To me, this is indicative of how we don’t support mental health care. We, as a state, think so little of mental health care workers that we ask them to do something completely inappropriate: Care for and interpret a historic resource.
The state of Washington, which has responsibility for its own history, is effectively saying, “Eh, whatever, all Western State is doing is mental health care. They have time.”
As someone who has had family members with mental health issues, this makes me angry.
Mental health care is a full time job. DSHS has enough to do, and meanwhile, Fort Steilacoom has stories to tell.
We are thrilled to be on that journey with the members who are supporting the buildings. Thank you for being a member!
Museum board president calls for new way of managing historic site
/in News/by fortsteilacoomThe board president of Historic Fort Steilacoom recently authored a personal opinion column for The News Tribune. The original draft is reprinted here for convenience, and reflects Walter Neary’s personal opinion.
Current ownership of Fort Steilacoom masks the early history of Washington Territory
or
Hospitals and museums are different things
By Walter Neary
When it comes to celebrating history, Washington State is unique. Not in a good way.
Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood was founded by the U.S. Army as the first military fort in Puget Sound on Aug. 22, 1849. The fort will celebrate the 175th anniversary in 2024.
Four buildings survive. You can walk through them today.
Their ownership is what makes them unique. For instance, Wyoming’s Fort Laramie is administered by the National Park Service.
In Texas, Fort Croghan is administered by The Burnet County Historical Commission and the Burnet County Heritage Society.
In Nevada, Fort Churchill is governed by the Nevada Division of State Parks.**
I could go on, but you get the idea. Everywhere else, first and early forts are administered by groups experienced in operating parks and museums.
So – who do you think owns some of the most historic ground in Washington State?
A mental hospital.
Western State Hospital and its parent, the state Department of Social and Human Services (DSHS).
That’s pretty unique. We’re not aware of many or any U.S. military sites of nationwide significance governed by a mental hospital.
So what’s wrong with being unique?
Hospitals and museums are different things.
Now, I want to make it clear, this is no insult to Western State Hospital or DSHS. Hospitals do what they do. Museums do what they do. Thank heavens Western State is doing what it does. But it’s not a museum.
It might seem a little silly to be saying, “Hospitals and museums are different things” out loud because most of us would think it pretty obvious. But I must. We’ve normalized a strange relationship in Washington. A behavioral health facility has responsibility for a historic U.S. Army site.
The reason is complex. Fort Steilacoom was decommissioned in 1868. Its buildings housed the first behavioral health facilities of Washington. The hospital moved into nearby newer buildings. The fort buildings remain on the front lawn – the old military parade grounds – of Western State.
In the 70s, DSHS was perfectly happy to let the aging fort buildings cave in. That’s reasonable – because DSHS is not a museum. Instead, the four historic buildings were restored several decades ago at the expense of volunteers. The grounds and buildings still belong to Western State.
I suppose if you don’t think behavioral health is important, then I suppose you might think Western State has all the time in the world to learn skills in history, storytelling, museums and education. But if you’ve ever read a story in The News Tribune about Western State, you truly know the people there have other things to do.
What this means in practical terms is that few resources and little expertise are going into telling the story of Washington Territory.
Does that matter? The answer depends on whether you think we learn anything from history.
The history of Fort Steilacoom is challenging. On its face, Fort Steilacoom is part of U.S. Army history in such disputes as a border face-off with Great Britain.
But parts of the fort’s history can be hard to tell. Fort Steilacoom’s forces were part of the war on Indigenous Tribes. Later on, the Army would protect Native Americans from vigilante civilian militias, but not at first. Fort Steilacoom housed Chief Leschi during his civilian trials so he would not be murdered in a civilian jail. As it turned out, civilian authorities staged a trial to hang Leschi even though Army officers knew he was innocent.
The Army obeyed the law and handed Leschi over. But Col. Silas Casey refused to allow a legal lynching to take place on Army soil. So the civilians hung Leschi in what’s now a neighborhood that got attention just a few months ago when a monument to Leschi was knocked over.
This is a complicated, emotional story to tell. We are grateful for support from Tribal members on our museum board, but this is a story that should involve the community. We need expertise in telling stories like this. Because there are lessons to be learned.
Meantime, Fort Steilacoom’s officers would go on to fight in the U.S. Civil War. The connection is the reason many people visit our museum today. You can walk on the same floor that George Pickett walked. Pickett later became a major general in the Confederate Army. Pickett’s Charge contributed to the end of the Confederacy and is one of the most famous events of the Civil War.
Many other Fort Steilacoom figures played a role in that war. The officer who supervised construction of Fort Steilacoom’s buildings, August Kautz, served on the tribunal that tried the Lincoln assassins.
Yet – we all know that parts of the Civil War are still being fought today. Again, the Civil War and its past and present context are a complicated, emotional story.
Now maybe we don’t want to think about the Treaty War.
Maybe we don’t want to think about the divisions of the Civil War.
Then the current situation makes sense. If you don’t want to confront and share these stories, then it makes sense to sideline Fort Steilacoom with a parent organization without expertise in museums, education and history.
But if we do think history can teach us something, then it makes sense to look for a new parent for Historic Fort Steilacoom.
Because hospitals and museums are different things.
Walter Neary is president of the board of the all-volunteer Historic Fort Steilacoom Association, which leases the four historic buildings from Western State Hospital.
** The original draft included a list of several other U.S. Army forts around the United States. All of them, both famous and relatively unknown, are backed by public institutions familiar with education and outreach.