Founded in 1939 by the Columbia River Archaeological Society, the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center (WVMCC) showcases local and regional history, natural sciences and the arts. It is housed in two historic buildings in downtown Wenatchee, Washington, USA, with three floors of unique displays interpreting life in the valley of the mid-Columbia. WVMCC hosts a variety of special events and family programs throughout the year.
Highlights for visitors include 11,000-year-old Clovis points discovered in 1987 in East Wenatchee; petroglyphs recovered prior to the construction of Rock Island Dam; Native American trade history; a tree fruit exhibit featuring a 1920s-era apple packing line with its unique catapult sizing machine; a model H0 scale train layout portraying three Great Northern Railway routes across the Cascade Mountains from 1892 to the present; Main Street 1910 with a general store, farm shop, house interior, and vintage autos; a working 1919 Wurlitzer pipe organ; and the world's first nonstop trans-Pacific flight, by Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, that landed in East Wenatchee in 1931.
Some of the special programs WVMCC presents for children and adults are Super Summer Adventures, geology bus tours, silent movies accompanied by the pipe organ, regional art shows, railroad history field trips, and the annual Environmental Film Festival.
The Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center, located at 127 South Mission Street, is open year-round Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Famous quotes containing the words valley, museum, cultural and/or center:
“I will frankly declare, that after passing a few weeks in this valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever before entertained. But alas! since then I have been one of the crew of a man-of-war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Things will not mourn you, people will.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 191, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“At times it seems that the media have become the mainstream culture in children’s lives. Parents have become the alternative. Americans once expected parents to raise their children in accordance with the dominant cultural messages. Today they are expected to raise their children in opposition to it.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)
“Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the center of the silent Word.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)