The Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center (WVMCC) is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Wenatchee Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and most populous city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and has increased to 35,508 as of 2020. Located in the north-central part of the stat ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, that houses local and regional history, Native American heritage. One of the artifacts housed is the propeller used in the first trans-Pacific flight. The museum was founded in 1939 by the Columbia River Archaeological Society. It is housed in two historic buildings, with three floors of displays interpreting life along the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

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 H ...

. 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, ...

'', 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 East Wenatchee is a city in Douglas County, Washington, Douglas County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census was 13,190, a 129.1% increase on the 2000 census, having annexed ...

, and the propeller was damaged during the landing.

Clovis points and other exhibits

Other exhibits include 11,000-year-old

Clovis point Clovis points are the characteristically fluted projectile points associated with the New World Clovis culture, a prehistoric Paleo-American culture. They are present in dense concentrations across much of North America and they are largely restr ...

s which were discovered in 1987 in East Wenatchee;

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s recovered prior to the construction of the

Rock Island Dam Rock Island Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River, in the U.S. state of Washington. Chelan County Public Utility District's ''Rock Island Dam and Hydro Project'' was the first dam to span the Columbia, having been built from 1929 to 19 ...

; 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 HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO. The ...

train layout portraying three Great Northern Railway routes across the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as many of those in the ...

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 The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

Programs

Some of the special programs WVMCC presents for children and adults are Super Summer Adventures, geology bus tours,

silent movies A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

accompanied by the pipe organ, regional art shows, railroad history field trips, and an annual Environmental Film Festival.

References

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) {{Washington-museum-stub