Whitman Mission National Historic Site ⓘ

Major Lee Moorhouse, Special Collections & University Archives of the University of Oregon Libraries

The land between the Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountains contains a large diversity of landscapes, such as grassland, plateau, mountains and canyons cut by the tributaries of the Columbia River. The Cayuse and other Native tribes of the Columbia River Plateau developed a lifestyle that took advantage of the wealth of foods that were available in this diverse landscape. The people still live here today. Their cultural centers and museums are reviving traditional practices and skills and teaching their history and culture. Whitman Mission NHS works with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to tell the story of this place, visit their website to learn more about their history and how they are teaching their heritage today.

In 1836, the American Board of Comissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) established two missions in the Oregon Country. Over the next eleven years, many missionaries worked in the area, expanded their efforts with more missions and tried to establish themselves among various tribes of the Columbia River Plateau. To learn more about some of the ABCFM Missionaries in the Oregon Country, visit our short biographies of the missionaries.

During their time in the Oregon Country, the Whitmans' lives were enmeshed with the fur traders. They traveled west together in 1836. Supplies for the mission were purchased from the Hudson Bay Company posts at Fort Vancouver and Fort Walla Walla. Overland mail was carried by the HBC express. The Whitmans raised three children of fur trappers. And, after the deaths of the Whitmans, it was the Peter Skene Ogden (pictured at left) of the HBC who came and paid the ransom for the hostages. To learn more about the Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Vancouver, and fur trappers, visit Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, WA.

The first wagon trains of settlers started traveling to the Oregon Country in the early 1840s. Though it was several days journey off of the Oregon Trail, the Whitmans' mission transformed from a mission to the Cayuse into an aid station for the immigrants on the Oregon Trail. Those who were sick, needed supplies, or needed a place to spend the winter would take the detour to the Whitmans' mission. Learn more about the Oregon Trail immigrants by visiting the Oregon National Historic Trail website .

More than just a museum, Tamástslikt Cultural Institute (TCI) celebrates the storied past, rich present, and bright future of Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Tribes. Owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, TCI is the only American Indian owned and operated interpretive center on the Oregon Trail. Located only about 45 minutes from Whitman Mission NHS near Pendelton, OR, it is a must-visit to learn about the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla people and how they have thrived in this region for over 10,000 years.

During the Whitmans’ time Fort Walla Walla was Hudson’s Bay Company trading fort located at the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia Rivers, approximately 25 miles west of the mission. Hudson’s Bay Company abandoned after the Whitmans were killed. Later, a separate military fort was created in present-day Walla Walla, WA for the United States Army until 1910. Today, the Fort Walla Walla Trading Post location is under Lake Wallula, but the military Fort Walla Walla operates as a museum featuring a 17-building historic pioneer settlement, beautiful gardens, and five sprawling exhibit halls housing thousands of artifacts.

The Whitman Mission National Historic Site museum collection began back in 1941 with the archaeological excavations on the park grounds by archaeologist, Thomas R. Garth Jr. His fieldwork at the site uncovered thousands of artifacts, which make up the bulk of the museum collection to this day. The park also contains a significant collection of historical and ethnographic objects, natural specimens, artwork, historical photographs, and archival materials. In total, the park museum collection contains approximately 68,100 items in its museum collection. Park collections may be used for exhibits, interpretive programs, research, publications, and interpretive media.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site welcomes donations that fit into the themes as described in our Scope of Collections statement. This document defines the scope of present and future museum collection holdings and ensures that all collections are clearly relevant to the park’s mission. Any potential donations should fit into one of the categories as described below:

If you are interested in donating to the museum collection, please send an email to museum staff. In the email, please include as much background information about the item as possible and images. A team of park staff and subject-matter experts evaluates potential donations and determines if the donation fits within the park’s collecting guidelines and if the park has the means to care for the donation in perpetuity. The park does not accept “drop off donations” where items are left at or shipped to the park without prior contact with the park’s museum collections staff.

Access to the museum collection is open by appointment only. Hours are 9:00am to 4:00pm Monday-Friday, excluding federal holidays, and subject to staff availability. To schedule an appointment, please contact the Museum Curator at (208) 843-7040 or by email .

If you were to visit Whitman Mission National Historic Site, how far would your journey here take? Coming from western New York, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and the other missionaries who joined them traveled over 2,000 miles, almost coast to coast across the country. In fact, when they made the trip in 1836, it wasn’t one country at all. These would-be missionaries were venturing far beyond the boundaries of the United States and through many different Indigenous nations as they headed towards the western part of the North American continent. These individuals were sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to the Oregon Country to set up missions among the many Native nations not a part of the United States or the United Kingdom.

The ABCFM was a Protestant Christian organization that sent missionaries to foreign countries both far and near. In 1833, a story was published in The Christian Advocate that inspired a wave of missionary efforts in Oregon Country. According to the article, four Flathead Indians traveled across the continent to visit William Clark in hopes of obtaining a copy of the Bible.

Four men, three of whom were actually Nez Perce, did in fact visit Clark, but the details of the visit were largely distorted based on second-hand knowledge of the interaction. These exaggerated reports inspired many hopeful missionaries from different sects of Christianity but also filled them with unrealistic expectations for the fieldwork that lay ahead.

Nevertheless, the article in The Christian Advocate was considered by many to be a sign that they must go forth and spread the word of God. Churches and missionary organizations, including the ABCFM, began searching for people to send westward. But who would be willing to leave everything that was familiar behind? Who would be capable of creating a self-sufficient mission?

The ABCFM sent Reverend Samuel Parker to find individuals willing to establish a mission in Oregon Country. He found Narcissa Prentiss and Marcus Whitman. Eliza and Henry Spalding were already set to be ABCFM missionaries to the Osage Nation but were transferred to serve as members of the Oregon party as well. William H. Gray was the final member to be added to the initial Oregon mission effort. They were later joined by the Walkers, Eells, Smiths, and Rogers.

While the ABCFM wanted missionaries who would be self-driven, their appointees for this mission resulted in numerous quarrels over who would be in charge. As a result, five different stations were established in what is modern-day Washington and Idaho. Splitting into multiple stations quelled some of the conflict over leadership and included the bonus of reaching more potential converts, but it also made self-sufficiency harder to obtain as resources had to be stretched across all the mission stations.

Historic Landscape The mission's landscape has changed dramatically over the past 200 years and continues to evolve in response to shifting hydrological and climate conditions. The introduction of grazing, agriculture, and irrigation to the site in the 19th century disrupted original plant communities. Around the mission site and visitor center, the NPS addition of mown lawns, ornamental trees, and other cultivated landscape features continues to impact the historic plant cover. It is probable that at the time the mission was established, a mixture of three plant communities occupied the site: a narrow plant community consisting of dense tangled thickets of willows, cottonwoods, wild dogwoods, blackberries, elderberries, and other species common to riparian areas probably occurred in the floodplains along the Walla Walla River and nearby Mill Creek; an association of perennial grasses, shrubs, and native forbs occurred on the hillsides where soil depths and drainage were greater; perennial grasses common to the Palouse dominated the rest of the mission site. Whitman Mission NHS has been engaged in substantial revegetation efforts over the past 30 years to reduce managed turf, noxious weeds, and other introduced species. Threats from invasive plants continue to occur despite efforts to reduce their impact, several species after still highly invasive and detrimental to the pre-white settlers landscape.

In 1997, an inventory of exotic pest plant species identified the following six species of concern: field bindweed ( Convolvulus arvensis ), jointed goatgrass ( Aegilops cylindrica ), poison hemlock , ( Conium maculatum ), yellow starthistle ( Centaurea solstitalis ), Canada thistle ( Cirsium arvense ), and Scotch thistle ( Onopordum acanthium ). Teasel , is another exotic. Teasel is a non-native plant whose spiky, dried flower heads were used to comb wool before spinning. Each of these plants can dominate native grasses and plants when left unchecked and present significant issues for resource management at Whitman Mission.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site: General Management Plan , September 2000. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and the Opening of Old Oregon . Clifford M. Drury.1986. Northwest Interpretive Association, Seattle, Washington.