Tour

2022 Heritage Days

When
September 23 - 25, 2022
10:00 am
Where
Confluence Story Circles, 2503 Sacajawea Park Road Pasco, Washington 99301

2022 Heritage Days – Living History Education

The Friends of Sacajawea State Park (FOSSP) are working with Washington State Park and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) staff to hold the 2022 Heritage Days event at Sacajawea Historical State Park on Friday September 23 through the morning of Sunday September 25. Friday’s line up of exhibitors is geared towards educating school groups and other interested visitors on the history and heritage of the park with a special focus on the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Confluence will be tabling and leading tours of the Story Circles.

The 2022 Heritage Days will have various stations and event attendees will guide themselves through them rather than being scheduled to visit specific stations. Volunteers will be available to assist people in identifying available stations and printed maps will be posted at various locations in the park along with QR code signs linking to information about the park. The Native American dancers (the Umatilla Generations Dancers) will dance at scheduled times on Friday and Saturday, which will be posted near the event entrance.

You can walk through history at the site where the Corps of Discovery camped over 200 years ago! Heritage Days will feature a Lewis and Clark living history encampment presented by the Pacific Northwest Living Historians, Mountain Man camps, Native American dancing and cultural displays, and vintage steam engines. Organizations at the event are the Corps of Engineers, several local museums, a Cowboy Poetry group, Pasco Police and Fire Departments, the Whitman Mission National Historic Site, the Manhattan Project National Historic Park-Hanford site, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Ice Age Floods/Coyote Canyon Mammoth Dig site among others.

An exception to the self-guided approach is that groups visiting the Interpretive Center must preregister before the event, using an on-line registration system being developed by WSPRC staff. As a heads up, WSPRC staff have proposed limiting the number of visitors in the Interpretive Center at one time to a maximum of 30, which will place a limit on the size of single groups and which number may be subject to change.

Presentations start at 9am and run through 4pm on Friday and Saturday. Event visitors are asked to 1) plan their visit to take advantage of the time spent at the park, and 2) limit the time spent at each station to be no more than 25 minutes. Moving between stations should take about 5 to 10 minutes.

Heritage Days is a FREE EVENT! However, entry into the park on Friday or Sunday requires a Washington State Parks DISCOVER PASS ($30) or a DAY PASS ($10), and Saturday September 24 is a Discovery Pass Free day. On Friday or Saturday, visitors should carpool where possible as the pass covers everyone in the car. Drivers needing to purchase a park pass should bring cash or check to minimize the time spent at the park entrance. School buses are exempt and do not require passes. Vehicle drivers should drop passengers as close to the event entrance as possible, keeping groups together and directing people to the grassy area to the south of the parking lot to keep them safely out of the path of other vehicles entering the park.

If you have any questions, please contact FOSSP via email at president@friendsofsacajaweastatepark.org.