Fort Vancouver – Medicine
Medical care in the 1800’s was primitive by our standards. Blood letting, leeches, limb removal were all standard operating (pun intended) procedures. Yet there were doctors, and there was medicine, especially herbal. Romola has spent quite some time studying the healing methods used, and is doing presentations at the fort to educate visitors.
Since there were no nurses in those days, Romola is dressed as a doctor in order to make a history-true presentation.
Romola is fully outfitted, including top coat and derby, just like the doctors wore in the 1840’s
One room of the doctors living area, adjacent to the infirmary.
The doctor’s family bedroom
Surgical instruments were certainly crude compared to today’s high tech tools
The infirmary, or hospital, certainly was close quarters
The doctor is ready to see patients
Fort Vancouver – carpenter shop
Back in the day, the carpenter was one of the most important tradesmen at Ft. Vancouver. He was responsible for building pretty well everything, from the buildings themselves, and cradle to casket. Compared to the fort itself, the shop takes up only a small space, but a lot of work was done here. And all with hand tools, no power equipment during the early years.
This year, I have been trained to make presentations to visitors about the shop, the tools, and the tasks. Very interesting, and I get to use the tools :)…. it gives great appreciation to the skills of the settlers, making such a variety of products with limited resources.
All dressed up and ready to work
Closeup of the foot pedal powered lathe
A good, sturdy and flat table is a requisite of the wood shop
The grind stone is hand powered too
On the far wall, many types of draw knives and hand planes
Raw materials, waiting projects
Additional projects, such as axles, wagon wheel, and ox yokes
Another view of the lathe area
Striking a cavalier pose in my period correct clothing
Fort Vancouver walk through
We went for a walk through the Fort Vancouver Historic Site and snapped some pictures along the way. Today was a relatively quiet day and a good day to reacquaint ourselves with the site. Below are some of the pictures to give you an idea what the place where we will work this summer looks like. There will be a lot of reenactments, demonstrations and other activities to make this a fun three months!
Blacksmith at work
Looking along some of the restored buildings
Inside the medical doctor’s office
Inside the carpentry shop
A lathe to turn anything round… handles, furniture legs, etc….
Inside one of the bedrooms
Two canon in front of the Chief Factor’s House, mostly ceremonial
Family dining table in the Chief Factor’s House
Outside the communal kitchen
An old candle lantern
The Chief Factor’s House… two families lived here, and the whole camp was run from this building
The well — it required a lot of labor to haul all the water up by the bucket full
Arrival at Ft. Vancouver
We completed the 1,000 mile drive from Dinosaur NM to Vancouver, WA in 3 days. The drive was relatively uneventful, except for some serious wind gusts through the Columbia Gorge. The scenery went from flat prairie fields to mountain terrain. We paralleled the Oregon Trail, the Lewis and Clark trail, and finally the Columbia river.
Now we can stay put for 3 months while we do our volunteer duties at Fort Vancouver. Below are a few pictures of the trip.
A lake along Highway 84, just north of Park City, UT
Flat prairie land as we enter Idaho
No vegetation to speak of as the road heads up
The Snake River on the horizon
Another view of the Snake River (Idaho)
Mountains on the horizon
The terrain changes as we head into Oregon
Finally, the scenery makes driving more interesting
But flat roads are not totally behind us!
Now this was a funky RV place, nothing but trucks and RV’s!
Along the Columbia River. Note the white caps, and the wind mills… tough driving!
The drive in the Columbia Gorge is quite spectacular
Arrival… Fort Vancouver!
Dinosaur National Monument
When we volunteered at Dinosaur two years ago, the main Quarry and visitor center were under re-construction and closed. It was finished last October, so we just had to see what it looked like, and altered our course to Fort Vancouver so we could. It was nice to be back and finally see this very important exhibit.
We started out early with one of our favorite hikes. Only 2 1/2 miles, but with very varied terrain. And since we haven’t hiked much lately it was a good way to get back into it. The scenery was just as nice as we remembered it.
Then we went to the new Visitor Center and up to the Quarry. This area has one of the worlds largest deposits of dinosaur bones. The Quarry has given up dinosaur artifacts to museums and exhibits around the world. The Quarry itself still has an amazing amount of bones visible. These were left in site so people can see what they look like undisturbed, you can even touch some of them. These small pictures don’t do it justice, you really ought to take a look yourself.
The Green River, rafting pullout area
The way up
A view into the valley
Saw this little guy catching some shade
Looking back to where we started
A small part of the Quarry wall
These bones are about 6 feet long
Here you can see an Allosaurus skull with part of the spine
A section of spine of a “smaller” dinosaur
A full Allosaurus skeleton on display
Driving to Dinosaur National Monument
Our drive yesterday was one of the shortest of our trip, but one of the most tiring. Almost all of the 140 miles was on winding, narrow, bumpy 2 lane roads with no shoulders. And with heavy truck traffic it required constant attention. Oh well, we’re here now and we can explore the Monument.
Typical road surface conditions
Road construction didn’t help the trip
At least some sections had some decent views
Leadville, Glenwood Springs, Rifle Gap Falls
Our drive today was a truly spectacular one. We started in Buena Vista, CO and headed north in Highway 24. This took us through Leadville, right at 10,000 ft. elevation. From there it was a 30 mile drive through some pretty canyons and spectacular scenery. Too bad I didn’t have time to look more, but on a road like this you better keep your eyes on the road!
Once we made it to I-70 the scenery wasn’t over, not by a long shot. Now the 4 lane freeway follows the Colorado River, giving more spectacular views. The drive by Glenwood Springs is unique in all the country. We got off at Rifle, and headed north on CO 325 to our campsite at Rifle Gap State Park. That was one narrow little road! But we were rewarded with a beautiful campsite by the lake.
We had some time so drove the short way to Rifle Falls, where we took a short hike. Nice pace!
Downtown Leadville, CO
Heading up the pass
At the top of the pass
What goes up must go down
What goes down must go up again
Even the driver can’t stop looking
Its a long ways down
Makes you wonder how they got a highway here
Even the Interstate has to follow the terrain
Parked — in a great spot!
A view of the triple falls
The base of the falls
Raton, NM to Buena Vista, CO
Our drive to Ft. Vancouver is well under way. Today we drove from Raton, NM to Buena Vista, CO. Not overly far, but all secondary mountain roads. With narrow roads, no shoulders, and strong wind currents we had to stay on the ball. But we made it, and are now parked and can rest up before tomorrows short (but high altitude!) drive.
Colorado is having a heat wave, close to 100 degrees, so we’ll just have to stay in and read etc. It’s too hot to go hiking.
The first part of CO69 wasn’t too bad, but windy
The road winds into the mountains
The mountain terrain becomes more rugged
And more rugged…..
Finally on Highway 50, a little wider
And parked for the day.
Cruise, Europe, blog and Facebook
We completed a terrific 2 week cruise to Europe, then spent a week with my sister and a week in Ireland. We had a great time. However, conditions made keeping a blog difficult, but I did post updates on Facebook. My question is if there is anyone who reads this blog that does NOT see our Facebook pages? If so, please leave a comment and I will continue my blogs. If everyone sees my pages on FB I may just discontinue the blog in favor of the Facebook pages.
Just a quick picture taken on our cruise…
Dinner time during one of the formal nights….
Our “vacation” itinerary
Even those of us who live and travel full time in a motor home need a vacation now and then, sort of a vacation from a vacation. For those that asked, below is our itinerary.
- May 4: DFW to Miami
- May 5: Check on board the “Constellation” on Celebrity Cruise Lines
- May 13: Ponta Delgada, Azores
- May 15: Lisbon, Portugal
- May 18: Paris (Le Havre), France
- May 19: London (Dover), England
- May 20: Arrive in Amsterdam. Stay with my sister.
- May 29: Amsterdam to Dublin. Rental House downtown
- June 4: Fly Dublin to DFW
Vacation is over, and the grind begins all over again….
Laninga's Travel Blog 