Vista House Centennial Celebration 5/5/18

On Saturday, May 5, 2018, a celebration was held to honor 100 years of the Vista House at Crown Point State Park.  Antique cars arrived and circled the building, chairs were set up for the audience of Vista House volunteers and others, the Royal Rosarians were there, a blessing was given by a married couple of Wasco Warm Springs Native Americans, speeches were given and voices raised in song, compliments of the Daughters of the American Revolution "Centennial Chorus".  And grand day!

I am the Chorus Director and we rehearsed inside the building before the event began.  We gathered at my house 4 miles to the west before car-pooling to the Vista House and practiced more.  This photo courtesy of Kelly Ann Wiggins, member of the Royal Rosarians.

This is a photo from our seats in front of the building as people are gathering for the event to begin.

The DAR Centennial Chorus from left - Teresa, Roberta Mills, my elder sister (both from Portland Chapter), Ruth Takahashi (Oregon Trail Chapter), Janet Apostalon (Beaver Chapter) and Nancy Slagle and Ellen Hopkins (Celilo Chapter).

We also did more warming up on the north side of the building while waiting for the event to begin.  :-)  This photo also was compliments of Kelly Ann Wiggin, Royal Rosarians.

This is the only photo I took, using my iPhone, of the audience.  All the others from my camera were taken by my husband Dayle Kasner, the Centennial Chorus "handler", chauffeur, sherpa, and all-around-nice-guy.  :-)

This beautiful American flag was used at the original dedication of the Columbia River Highway in 1916 and again at the dedication of Vista House in 1918.  Notice there are only 48 stars on this flag, today there are 50.

Dayle climbed the stairs to the upper observation area and snapped this image from high.

While things were going on outside the caterer, Sal from Ristorante Pompello in Troutdale and his crew were setting up a delightful Italian buffet for after the ceremony.  Note the beautiful Alaskan Tokeen marble floors.

And the beautiful ceiling with these arching beams and the carved Kasota limestone panels depicting 8 of the names of pioneer families of note from the area.

Dayle walked around the upper outdoor observation deck to snap images of the Columbia River view to the west and Portland, Oregon and the antique cars and owners below.

And the cars and view of the Columbia River Gorge to the East.

My friend Sally King in the audience.  She served as the Volunteer Coordinator for 30 years and I hired her as the Assistant Manager of the Vista House Gallery when I served as Executive Director of the Friends of Vista House from 1982 to 1997.  

The Royal Rosarians line up as the event began, a welcome speech by the current Executive Director of the FOVH, Bob Woody, the Chorus began the event by singing Oregon My Oregon and then This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie - then the flag was raised as we sang the Star Spangled Banner - our National Anthem.  A very moving experience for us all.

The Royal Rosarians in fine form.

The beautiful flag of our country.

A special part of the day was Dayle's cousin, Terry, far right, is a Royal Rosarian and we enjoyed talking to her during the event.  She introduced her cousin to many of the Rosarians.

The DAR Chorus singing their hearts out.

Lisa Sumption, the Director of Oregon Parks & Recreation Department spoke.

A view from by the flag pole.

Speeches were given by Kevin Price, recently retired from OPRD, Fred and Olivia Wallutatum from the Wasco Confederated Tribes, Warm Springs and Bob Woody, FOVH Executive Director.  Not pictured is Jagit Nagra who read a statement from Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley which had been entered into the Congressional Record.

Fred and Olivia Wallutatum gave a moving tribal blessing.  They told of how young men from times past would come to this place for their vision quests.  Fred is a Wasco Chief.

Kevin's story was amazing and wonderful and had the entire audience in stitches.  It was about his love affair with Vista House.  :-)

The DAR Chorus ended the ceremony by singing Roll On Columbia by Woody Guthrie.  The audience joined in and it was lovely.  

Dayle walked around the circle taking photos of the wonderful historic cars.

Another wonderful part of the day was the unveiling of the book put together by my friends Gary Law and Ken Manske.  Gary is on the board of directors of the FOVH and one of the founders of the group, as I was, and Ken is the current President of the FOVH.  I am so impressed by the book!!

This book was made to memorialize the PEOPLE to have saved the Vista House and brought it to life.  I am very pleased to have been a part of the group of people who take care of this wonderful historic building.  In this part of the book you can see me at my desk when I was given the keys to the building when I was hired to be the first executive director in 1982.  On the right is Sally, my trusty assistant.

My calligraphy and drawing skills came in handy when I drew up this certificate award to honor all the volunteers who helped to clean up and give life to the building.

This part of the book shows the lower level when we began to fix it up and bring it back to life.  Also, the infamous photo of all the people who worked together to make it happen.

They even added photos and the story of the Historic Columbia River Highway sign I drew up and testified for it's approval to the Multnomah County Commission, the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Commission.  It was approved and produced by ODOT and placed along the road from Troutdale to The Dalles.  :-)

And that is the story of our big day.  I hope you enjoyed reading about it all and learned something new.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)