The Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center (WVMCC) is a
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
in
Wenatchee
Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
, that houses local and regional history, Native American heritage, and the propeller used in the first trans-Pacific flight.
Founded in 1939 by the
Columbia River Archaeological Society, the museum, housed in two historic buildings, contains three floors of displays interpreting life along the
Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...
in
Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...
. WVMCC hosts a variety of special events and family programs throughout the year.
Exhibits
Propeller from the first trans-Pacific flight
The museum exhibits the propeller from ''
Miss Veedol
''Miss Veedol'' was the first airplane to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. On October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn and co-pilot Hugh Herndon landed in the hills of East Wenatchee, Washington, following a 41-hour flight from Sabishiro Beach, Mi ...
'', the airplane that made the first nonstop trans-Pacific flight. Pilot
Clyde Pangborn
Clyde Edward Pangborn ( ''c''. October 28, 1895 – March 29, 1958), nicknamed "Upside-Down Pangborn", was an American aviator and barnstormer who performed aerial stunts in the 1920s for the Gates Flying Circus. He was its half-owner, chief pil ...
and co-pilot Hugh Herndon had dropped the planes wheels and landing gear early in the 1931 flight to maintain flying weight, so Pangborn had to skid-land ''Miss Veedol''s American touch-down in the hills of East Wenatchee, and the propeller was damaged during the landing.
Clovis points and other exhibits
Other exhibits include 11,000-year-old Clovis points which were discovered in 1987 in East Wenatchee; petroglyphs recovered prior to the construction of the 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 (U.S.), 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; and a working 1919 Wurlitzer pipe organ.
Programs
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 an annual Environmental Film Festival.
External links
Museum website
Museums established in 1939
Museums in Chelan County, Washington
History museums in Washington (state)
Art museums and galleries in Washington (state)
Buildings and structures in Wenatchee, Washington
Natural history museums in Washington (state)
Transportation museums in Washington (state)
Archaeological museums in Washington (state)
1939 establishments in Washington (state)
Aerospace museums in Washington (state)
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