Enjoying Local History

I think it's interesting how we don't take advantage of the beauty and history that is so close to our home, yet we are willing to travel 4,000 miles to find it.

We decided to spend our Memorial Day weekend staying close to home and taking advantage of that history.  Being the first official weekend of summer, the outlying museums in the county finally opened after a long winter.  Not only did they open, they hosted a "living history" weekend.

We started by driving up to Rocky Point to have a wonderful breakfast, enjoying a breathtaking view.

While eating our breakfast we saw canoes, kayaks, row boats, paddle boats, and families out fishing.  I could see this becoming a regular breakfast spot.

We then drove up the road toward Fort Klamath.  Most of us know Fort Klamath as a pit-stop on the way to Crater Lake National Park.  But this is no longer the case, since the only place to stop, the Fort Klamath Grocery Store, has closed it's doors. The area around Fort Klamath has always been one of my favorites in this county.  You can almost see the way it would have looked 150+ years ago when the settlers came here.  Farming and ranching is still dominant in this area.

It's pretty common to see a cowboy rounding up cattle, with his trusty side-kick.

I knew the that local Civil War Society was participating in the "living history" at the Fort Klamath museum, but I debated about telling Scott about it.  This is the kind of thing that he loves.  I knew that once he knew, there would be no going back.  In the end, I broke down and told him before we left home. 

In all the times that we have driven past here, we have never stopped.  It's a single building, on the side of the highway.  But the history here is overwhelming, and thanks to the Civil War re-enactors, we were able to learn even more.

These "soldiers" demonstrated how this canon was loaded and fired.

This kid knew what was coming.

I'm not sure this old guy could even hear what was coming.  (He was quite cute!)

Inside the museum is a small display of artifacts and history. 

The original building here caught fire in 2001 and most of the artifacts were destroyed.  The buildings here aren't original, but have been made to look like they are.

Fort Klamath is most historic for the four Modoc Indian Chiefs who were brought here at the end of the Modoc war.  These chiefs, including Captain Jack, were tried and hanged here.  Their graves are the only original markings left on-site.

Speaking of graves, Scott and I are suckers for an old graveyard.  After leaving the Fort Klamath Museum, we drove a few hundred yards down the road the Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery.

Many of the people buried in this cemetery are people that came here as pioneers.  They crossed the Oregon Trail in wagons, most of them walking the entire 2,000+ miles.  Nobody famous is buried here, but these people are the ancestors to many of the families that still farm this land.

The Internet is an amazing tool.  I googled this guy:

I discovered that, not only did he come across on the Oregon Trail, he first fought for the Union Army in the Civil War!  Now, 150 years later, he quietly resides in Fort Klamath.  I wonder how many people who walk past his grave know this about him?  Someone did, since they placed the flag her in honor of Memorial Day.

I think after our little adventure, we will start making more day trips around this area.  There is so much more to discover here than I can even imagine.