Museums, museums and more museums

While we were at Dee's in Richland we went to several museums & historic sites. Dee hadn't even been to some of them and she lives here.

The first one was Ft.Walla Walla and we timed it great as it was Ft. Walla Walla Days.

The highlights were this 33 mule team wagon.

The reenactors encampment.

A really big tree. Started in 1200, cut in 1970.

On to the Whitman Mission. They were massacred  and this is the monument.

Next was the site of Frenchtown. Just a few plaques.

The following day we toured the Hanford National Monument. The government needed a remote place with plenty of water & power. The Grand Coulee dam had just been built. The Columbia River was near by and there were only about 1500 people needed to be relocated. They were given 1 month to leave. 

The B Reactor was built in 18 months.

These were where the uranium were placed it was a couple of stores high. A cooling system whereby 2000 gals of water were sent from one side to the other in 1 sec to cool it. It would take up to 9 months to change 1 ton of uranium into plutonium that would be the equivalent of a small handful of paper clips. The material that created the bomb that ended WW11 came from here.