On August 12, 1956, the 196-acre Fort Simcoe Historical State Park opens near White Swan in Yakima County, nearly 100 years to the day after construction of the original fort began. It is one of the few remaining pre-Civil War forts in the West. Clifford "Click" Relander (1908-1969), a Yakima-based newspaper editor and local historian, chairs the research committee of the Fort Simcoe at Mool-Mool Restoration Society, created in 1952 to assist with the historical accuracy of the restoration. Nestled between rolling hills, Fort Simcoe was part of the historic homelands of the Yakama Nation, who called it Mool-Mool ("bubbling water"). After the U.S. Army abandoned the post in 1859, the 21 buildings were given to the Yakama Indian Agency, part of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, and a government-run boarding school and dormitories for Indian children were established. Over the decades, most of the buildings deteriorated and were demolished; the school burned down in 1919 and the dormitories were razed in 1950. In 1953, the Yakama Nation granted a 99-year lease to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission to preserve Fort Simcoe as a historic monument.
Keeping Watch
Construction of Fort Simcoe began on August 8, 1856, under the supervision of U.S. Army Colonel George Wright (1803-1865), who hoped its presence would provide a safe refuge for settlers during Washington Territory's treaty-war era. Located on the Yakama Reservation a short distance southwest of what is now the community of White Swan, the site near a grove of oak trees and two large springs was chosen for its location "on a heavily traveled Yakama path [that] allowed the soldiers at Fort Simcoe to keep watch over who visited the tribe and what their activities were" ("United States Establishes Fort Simcoe ..."). At the time, there were an estimated 1,200 Native Americans living in the Simcoe Valley.
The fort was not a military base for long. On May 16, 1859, its 21 buildings, with a combined value of $30,000, were turned over to the Yakama Indian Agency, part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A vocational boarding school was established on the site under the direction of James Harvey Wilbur (1811-1877). Known as Father Wilbur, he was a Methodist minister, missionary, and BIA agent described as "large-framed, powerful and fearless, he brooked no flouting of his authority. With his efficient helpmate, Mrs. Wilbur, he dominated the reservation scene" (Guie). When the school opened in 1860, the inaugural class was made up of 18 Native American students -- 15 boys and three girls. Wilbur temporarily lost his position in 1861 but was reinstated after he traveled to Washington, D. C., in February 1864 to plead his case with President Abraham Lincoln.
Wilbur held the post for the next 18 years, introducing what was known as the "Bible and Plow" policy:
"He worked to instruct Indians in farming and irrigation and to Christianize them; to help them build homes, fight for their fishing rights at the fisheries along Celilo. He preached to them to give up a plurality of wives. He aided them in acquiring teams, wagons and plows and cattle. And two boarding schools, one for boys and one for girls were eventually built at Simcoe" (Relander, "Fort Simcoe State Park").
Wilbur resigned his position on August 15, 1882, and died five years later on October 8, 1887, at the age of 76. In 1891, the school at Fort Simcoe was named Wilbur School in his honor.
Native American Boarding School
In the 150 years between 1819 and 1969, there were 408 Native American boarding schools in 37 states or territories nationwide, including 21 in Alaska and seven in Hawaii. There were two in Yakima County: Fort Simcoe and St. Joseph's. The Fort Simcoe Boarding School enrolled young children through the equivalent of seventh grade. With just 18 students in the inaugural class of 1860, enrollment rose to 120 students in 1881, and to 141 by 1917. Life was difficult for the children. "At the time, the government used the schools to force the assimilation of Indians into American society. At the school, Indian languages such as Sahaptin were forbidden, children were given Anglicized names and boys would have their long hair shorn" (Meyers). Traditional Native clothing was outlawed; instead the boys were given uniforms with red stripes on the pants, shirt cuffs, and caps. Daily chores were performed outside of school hours. The girls worked in a sewing room or in the laundry, the boys did yard work.
In December 1919, the two-story wood-framed school at Fort Simcoe burned to the ground and classes were moved to other buildings in the fort complex to finish out the school year. The school closed in 1920, and students transferred to public day schools on the Yakama Reservation. The student dormitories were demolished in 1950. "In the years from when the school closed to when the dormitories were torn down, the buildings deteriorated significantly, with broken windows and wood bleached by intense sunlight. By the time work began to create the park familiar to visitors today, much of the property had become unkempt" (Ayer, "Photos and Research Offer ..."). In 1922, the BIA office moved from Fort Simcoe to Toppenish, and the fort was abandoned.
Preserving the Fort's History
As early as the 1930s, the National Park Service considered making the fort a national historic site or national monument to commemorate its role in the treaty wars but funding was difficult during the Great Depression.
"Around 1938, members of an Indian Conservation Corps forestry unit housed ... at the fort completed some preservation work on the decaying structures, including shoring up foundations, roofs, and floors, and some exterior painting. The advent of World War II ended those efforts, and the fort sat silent during the war years. In the 1950s, several people interested in preserving Fort Simcoe formed the Mool-Mool Restoration Society to bring attention to the decaying fort and advocate for its preservation as a park" (Danner).
On October 10, 1952, members of the Fort Simcoe at Mool-Mool Restoration Society held their first meeting in Yakima, and a few months later, in February 1953, Click Relander was asked to chair the research committee. Its duties were to "locate and catalogue artifacts, obtain copies of documents and historical accounts and secure copies of photographs that will provide a complete word and visual picture covering over half a century of Northwest history" (Relander, "Fort Simcoe at Mool-Mool ..."). Field trips, interviews, correspondence, and other inquiry tactics were used to uncover the story.
Relander, born on a farm in Indiana, had moved to Yakima from California in 1945 to become a reporter and then city editor for the Yakima Daily Republic. He took an interest in several Central Washington tribes, including the Yakama and the Wanapum, and spent the next 25 years collecting historical manuscripts, documents, photographs, newspapers, microfilm, and other materials related to the Pacific Northwest and tribal history. He took his role as research committee chair seriously, insisting that the group include at least one Native American, a move approved by society president and fellow author Roscoe Sheller. "I fully agree that you should have at least one Indian working with you. Who can blame them for being suspicious of any attempt any white man makes to acquire some of their property? With the many raw deals they had we certainly cannot criticize them for it. Being represented on your committee surely would lend confidence. Besides, who has a better right or interest in what we are attempting to do?" (Sheller to Relander).
In 1953, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the Yakama Tribal Council for a 25-year lease of the fort site on the Yakama Reservation. In 1955, the agreement was renegotiated, expanding the area of the park and extending the lease to 99 years to allow for serious restoration efforts.
In a 1955 letter seeking donations from Mool-Mool Restoration Society members, Sheller noted the group's achievements during the previous two years:
"Research and the acquiring of historical material; suggestions to the commission's historians; the distribution of Fort Simcoe folders published at the society's expense ... conferences with the Yakima Indian Tribal Council's Fort Simcoe Committee; conferences with the Yakima County Commissioners and State Highway officials, relative to improvement of the White Swan-Simcoe road; the making of arrangements with the Rural Electrification Administration for a heavier load line into the property, and meetings with the director, historian and other representatives of the State Park Commission" (Sheller to All Members).
Fort Simcoe Park Opens
As the new park neared completion, Relander joined the society's Centennial Committee, tasked with planning the opening celebration. This grand affair on August 12, 1956, kicked off at 1:15 p.m. with Roscoe Sheller serving as master of ceremonies. The program opened with an invocation by the president of Whitworth College, Dr. Frank F. Warren, followed by the raising of the 32-star American flag, and the Pledge of Allegiance. There were performances by military bands and Native American singing and dancing. Dignitaries included Governor Arthur B. Langlie (1900-1966) and his wife, U.S. Representative Otis Halbert (Hal) Holmes (1902-1977) and his wife, mayors from Yakima Valley cities, state legislators, four county commissioners, tribal representatives, and members of the U.S. Army, Yakima Valley Pioneer Association, and Daughters of the Pioneers, among others. A short play based on the life of Father Wilbur was presented by the churches of Yakima Valley.
Five original century-old structures remained on the site: the commander's house, three captain's houses, and a blockhouse. Several other buildings were recreated to appear original and an interpretive center was erected. Fort Simcoe was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
In 2021, an effort to uncover unmarked graves at Fort Simcoe was begun using ground-penetrating radar, high-tech mapping tools, and dogs. "The remains that could be found here might include some from when this site was a long-inhabited village thousands of years ago, from those killed during the Yakama War in the 1850s and even the remains of children from when this area was turned into a Native American boarding school from 1860 to 1920" (King).
