Sacajawea State Park
Scope and Contents
This series consists of material related to planning and construction of the public art installations including designs, site plans, correspondence, contracts, and financial records. There are also eleven oversize models of the sites.
Dates
- Creation: 2000-2013
Creator
- From the Collection: Confluence Project (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Series 3 and Series 5 contain unprocessed born-digital files on CDs, MiniDisks, Betacam SX, and VHS. Unprocessed content includes files from Confluence in the Schools, Confluence in the Classroom projects, recorded interviews, and footage from sites. For more information, please contact the Archives.
Historical Note
Sacajawea State Park was dedicated in 1931 at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. Lewis and Clark camped there for two days and traded with local Sahaptian-speaking Indians who had used this location as a gathering spot for thousands of years. At the southernmost tip of the park are seven story circles connected by a winding reinforced pathway. The structures are not uniform, but their circumference is approximately 10 feet in diameter. Each circle is composed of one- to two-foot tall carved basalt blocks. The southernmost circle is actually an elliptical enclosure that mimics the footprint of a native longhouse, a social and ceremonial space central to the cultural traditions of the indigenous tribes along the Columbia. Another circle represents the importance of salmon to tribal peoples and features etchings of a large Chinook salmon along with the English name and its Sahaptin counterpart, “susayns.” A third circle represents the different animal species that inhabited the region along with corresponding pictograms and linguistic signifiers. Several of the circles are “empty,” or rather filled with rough gravel, and feature carvings on both the exterior and interior surfaces of the basalt blocks encouraging movement and contemplation within and around the spaces. Other circles are filled with indigenous flora and fauna with wheat stalks and tall grasses jutting up into the sky. The project at Sacajawea State Park spanned from 2002 to 2010, and was officially dedicated in August of 2010.
Extent
From the Series: 46.65 Linear Feet (10 boxes, 16 tubes, 11 oversize models)
Language of Materials
English
Repository Details
Part of the Whitman College and Northwest Archives Repository