The long chase after Chief Joseph and his Nez Percé Indians, with one or two fights and finally his surrender to General Miles, is now a matter of history. While General Howard has been greatly maligned it must not be forgotten that he was fighting one of the bravest tribes of Indians in the United States.
Among the most attractive features of Walla Walla is the park. This has usually been known as "City Park" for lack of a better name. Discussion has been rife as to a better and a permanent name. That question is still pending but the author ventures to express the opinion here that the most appropriate name would be "Pashki," one of several forms of the Indian name for the location of the park and also used for the creek. The word means "sunflower."
We are fortunate to be able to present a sketch by Miss Grace Isaacs, a "Native Daughter" of Walla Walla, and one of the foremost among the creators of the park.
THE PARK AT WALLA WALLA
"When Mr. Olmstead outlined a plan for Walla Walla's parks ten years ago, it was a source of satisfaction to discover that the work by our first park commission was along similar lines.
"The Olmstead plan included a boulevard encircling the city and connecting a series of parks in the four quarters of the town, embracing land now leased by the golf club and other tracts owned by the city. Its fruition has been regarded by many as a beautiful dream, or an ideal not realized in this generation by some of our men of affairs. Not so, however, with some enthusiasts, encouraged by the president of the Park Commission, John W. Langdon. When the plans for our first City Park were outlined, this forty acre tract, a part of the oldest farm in the valley, had been the property of the city for some years, it having been acquired by the purchase of the water system, and contained two of the main reservoirs of spring water, which then supplied the town. John F. McLean, as a member of the City Council, had endeavored to improve the tract, but was handicapped for lack of funds, and by lack of interest among his colleagues to the extent of a resolution in the council to sell a part of the land for building lots. Mr. McLean opposed this plan so vigorously, and continued to urge the park's improvement so earnestly, that others became interested, and when Mayor Tausick appointed the first Park Commission, Mr. McLean was a member, with Mr. Langdon, John P. Kent, Mrs. J. C. Huckett and Mrs. E. S. Isaacs.
"It was in 1901 that Mrs. Conde Hamlin of St. Paul, a member of the Civic Improvement Committee of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs, at the invitation of The Women's Reading Club and the Art Club of Walla Walla (at that time the only clubs in Walla Walla, though our city has the distinction of having organized in 1885, the second woman's club in the State of Washington, it being also one of the first dozen in the United States), gave us our first public lecture upon Civic Improvement. The Commercial Club supplied the theatre and W. P. Hooper, vice president of the Commercial Club, presided and introduced the speaker. The immediate result was the organizing of local Improvement Clubs of men and women, that did much to prepare public sentiment for a broader development. The Women's Clubs which had already their civic committees, making tentative experiments (of trash cans and such) received an impetus, and finally the Park Commission was appointed, and Mr. Langdon proceeded to draw a plan for the improvement of City Park. A park superintendent was secured and then came the question of money. It would require $4,000 to lay the system of water pipes through forty acres; the Council gasped, and said 'dare we do it?'
"A mass meeting of women was called, and a petition to the Council asking that this work be done, was circulated by women, and assumed the remarkable length of fourteen feet of names when presented to the Council. Needless to say, the argument was irresistible, and the work was hurried to completion. There being still the necessity for funds, the Woman's Park Club thus organized on the broad lines of membership, willingness 'to work for parks' constituting eligibility to membership, and year by year its plans have been carried to completion in proportion to the state of the exchequer. Dreamland, a tract of ten acres in the southwestern part of town, has been acquired, and following Mr. Olmstead's recommendations, an effort is being made to secure land for another in the northwestern area, which is more than a mile from the Dreamland, and two from City Park. There are also eight acres on Boyer Avenue known as 'Wildwood' awaiting development, as well as the land lying along Mill Creek, previously mentioned as leased by the Golf Club. Walla Walla possesses abundant land for all the recreation places she will need for one hundred years at least, if wisely conserved.
"The Park Club established and maintains the playgrounds in two parks, and hopes another season to build swimming pools. For the establishment of this department credit should be given the eloquence of Jane Addams and of Judge Lindsey in depicting the need for the right environment of children in their leisure hours. It was with the hope that preventive measures might make some of the unhappy conditions of cities impossible in this community. The Park Club has for eight years given annually a 'Community' entertainment, usually an open air festival in the park. The Pageant of 1914, written and staged by Porter Garnett of the Pageant Association of America, the artist who has staged so many of the Bohemian Club's Grove Plays, will linger long in memory as 'the most beautiful thing Walla Walla ever did.' It was a wonderful artistic success, owing to the devotion of the Park Club to ideals, which were epitomized by Mr. Garnett as 'those whose Civic pride and constructive idealism have enabled them to dare and to achieve.'