New History State Museum Offers A Look At Lives Of Washington State

The new Washington State History Museum opens Saturday in Tacoma, offering state-of-the-art multi-media presentations, interactive exhibits and dramatic stagings that breathe life into the bare bones of history.

With all the gusto of a well-researched historical novel, it entices museum-phobics with story, inviting visitors to probe the past as deeply as they choose to go.

The exterior echoes the design of its restored turn-of-the-century neighbor, Union Station. Brick, cement and glass curve and soar in the new building’s arches, barrel-vaulted roof and outdoor amphitheater. Architecture of the Warehouse District across the street, also on the national registry of historic landmarks, is likewise reflected.

Once inside, don’t expect to plod through acres of encased archives. Instead, the five-story, 100,000-square-foot museum invites exploration in a permanent exhibit hall anchored by a 42-foot-tall electrical transmission tower. Symbolizing the electrification of rural Washington, the tower also makes a ready reference point. The railroad intersects the room, just as it has peoples’ lives.

A Southern Coast Salish Plank House welcomes visitors to the home of a Puyallup family with a Nisqually in-law. There they can watch and listen in on meal preparation, net mending and basketmaking in the pre-European contact era. Crafted by a Native American in Neah Bay, the house is constructed of hand-split, naturally weathered cedar boards.

Nearby, carved drawings adorn the “rock” walls of the Petroglyph Theater. Other pieces of the past include the 11,000-year-old tools (made from mammoth or mastodon bones) and stone points of the Clovis collection. The Wenatchee apple orchard from which they were recovered in 1987 is the only known Washington site associated with that Ice Age culture of early nomadic hunters of large game.

A prairie schooner that braved the Oregon Trail brims with household treasures. Children who climb aboard can pick up the reins and imagine themselves back in time.

Stroll through a railroad passenger car in which a Norwegian immigrant family chugs cross-country to Tacoma. Ogle the collection of nuggets from the Klondike gold rush, on public exhibit for the first time.

Visitors can also experience the ravages of a cave-in at the Roslyn coal mine, but a video ride down the Columbia River might be thrill enough. Or feel the closeness of the life-size Boeing B-17 zooming overhead.

From the electrical tower, wires connect to a 22-by-35-foot relief map of the state, the largest ever produced. Below, Encyclopedia Washingtonia challenges with a bank of interactive stations. Nearby, the formation of the Columbia River Gorge and the lives of the people along that river play out in a three-screen theater.

Natural Setting features “Slice of Washington,” a topographical map that cuts across the state diagonally. Here and throughout the museum, pull-out drawers showcase other artifacts, allowing visitors to discover more information.

Eye and mind can also scale the gigantic Wood Products Tree from which one of the largest ephemera collections in the country is suspended - all wood products grown and built in Washington.

By now you may be ready to rest at a ‘30s counter in downtown Seattle as you browse vintage artifacts of depression glass, sheet music or Monopoly. Tune in to a Rinso ad on the radio - and perhaps one of FDR’s fireside chats.

In a Hooverville shack, meet out-of-work laborers Mac and Leon discussing hard times. The faces of the mannequins in each of the museum’s audio-visual sculptures have been recreated from lithographs and photographs of the times, the conversations taken from collected oral histories. Text on explanatory scrolls is large enough to read easily, even when a crowd prevents your getting close.

A high-school yearbook, a 10-year-old’s suitcase and a collection of crate paintings from the camp at Tule Lake tell the story of Japanese internment during World War II.

Rosie the Riveter, immigrant laborers, a shingleweaver missing fingers from his work in an Everett lumber mill, apple sorters, fishers and canners, Chinese railroad workers, wheat harvesters, ship builders - all the ordinary people working to build a life and a state gather here to tell their stories.

For each visitor, there’s something that’s sure to strike a personal chord. This may well be, as some have already dubbed it, “the best history museum west of Chicago.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Getting there: Take I-90 west to I-5, continuing south to Tacoma, Exit 133 (City Center). Immediately take the Tacoma Dome/E. 26th St. exit and go left three blocks to Pacific Avenue. Turn right. Continue five blocks on Pacific. Museum is on right, with adjacent parking. Information: Washington State History Museum: 1911 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, WA. 98402, 1-888-BE-THERE or 1-206-272-3500. Hours: Memorial Day through Labor Day: Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; Thursday until 8 p.m.; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Rest of the year: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; Thursdays until 8 p.m.; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday. Admission: adults, $7; seniors (60 and up), $6; youth (13-17), $5; ages 6-12, $4; ages 3-6, $3; under 3, free. Group Tours: $5 per person, advance registration and prepayment, minimum group size of 10, docents available. Call 1-206-272-3500. All areas of the museum are wheelchair accessible. Assistance devices provided for the sight-and hearing-impaired. Museum Store: Unique items from local craftsmen, hard-to-find books, clothing, toys, maps, museum publications, Northwest history. Museum hours, with separate entry. Events and exhibits: On opening weekend, Aug. 10-11: Day-long entertainment in the outdoor amphitheater, beginning 10 a.m. each day. Aug. 10-Jan. 5, 1997: “Sacred Encounters: Father DeSmet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountains West.” This is the last stop for a show that has traveled internationally. Many of its 650 artifacts are from private collections not previously on public display.