Fort Dalles Museum

 Hi Blog Pals,
Sandy here.  My pal Little Fox has planned a nice weekend escape for me.  The first stop is at the Fort Dalles Museum. 

Fort Dalles was established in 1838.  Behind me are the surgeons quarters.  This is the back entrance (near the kitchen) and now it's the main entrance to the museum.

This is the main entrance to the surgeons quarters back in the day.  As you can see the surgeon and their family had a pretty darn nice house.  

Inside the museum they had all sorts of cool stuff from The Dalles.  The Dalles was one of the last stops on the Oregon Trail and has an unique and vibrant history. 

As with any older town (The Dalles was established in 1857)  there were lots of buildings.  This board was used at the Umatilla House.  

The Umatilla House was known as the best hotel west of Chicago and North of San Francisco.

Many famous people stayed at the Umatilla House including Mark Twain, but lots of "regular" people stayed there too including gold miners in the Winter.  Apparently, the owners of the Umatilla House were very generous and when people could not pay their bill it was not a problem.  They often told people to send the money when they could.  

The Umatilla House cellar could hold 2,500 gallons of whiskey, could hold 200 men at a time, and was rumored to be more profitable than the profits on room and board together. 

Time to try my luck on an old slot machine. 

Outside of the surgeons quarters was a garage with a variety of old cars, wagons and transports. 

While in the garage we met this friendly cat. 

Smart cat, he's hanging out by the old milk wagon.

A few more old cars. 

Time for this bear and fox to check in at the hotel and get a good nap in before we head out on the town.