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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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On the museum trail

Spokane Valley Museum curator Jayne Singleton dials a rotary phone that is part of an exhibit at the museum that features central office step switches. The Spokane Valley Museum will participate in the
Treva Lind Correspondent
Spokane Valley Museum curator Jayne Singleton dials a rotary phone that is part of an exhibit at the museum that features central office step switches. The Spokane Valley Museum will participate in the

History buffs get to tour three area museums Friday for $10.

The Spokane County Heritage Museums Association has scheduled the first On the Trail of History tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to include the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum, Fairfield Museum and the Rockford Military Museum.

As a bonus, participants will receive a self-guided driving tour brochure that roughly follows the old Mullan Trail and guides people to historical markers.

For the $10 admittance at the first museum, visitors will receive a souvenir ticket good at the other museums. Visitors can take in pioneer heritage of Fairfield and Waverly, the only area log cabin American Legion Post in Rockford and an exhibit on the Grand Coulee Dam at the Spokane Valley museum.

“The purpose is to acquaint people with the history in the Valley and south Spokane area, and also to acquaint people with the three museums,” said Jayne Singleton, director of the Spokane Valley museum.

She said participants can find nine sites on a self-guided driving tour map, including markers for Mullan Road, one of the most important pioneer travel routes in the Northwest that Captain John Mullan was charged with developing.

The driving tour’s suggested starting point is the Mullan military road marker at Vista and East Sprague Avenue. The tour takes in Highway 27, Mount Hope Community Church and cemetery and the Qualchan Hangman Creek Monument.

In Rockford, people can find military artifacts in a log cabin building built in 1923 for an American Legion Post, said Rockford Historical Society vice president Evelyn Fricke. The town’s Legion Post members cut logs from Mica Peak over several months, “then skidded them down in the winter,” she said.

Now operated by the historical society, the building at 140 W. Emma St. houses military uniforms from World War I to the present, photographs of service members, World War II ration stamps and other military artifacts.

The Fairfield Museum, meanwhile, has history on early settlers in the area, starting from around 1860.

For more information about the tour, call the Spokane Valley museum at 922-4570.