Fort Vancouver will celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service on Aug. 27, while unveiling an aircraft that traces its war-fighting roots back 100 years.
But Fort Vancouver isn’t stopping at 100 years of history. Staff and volunteers will commemorate a wider span of heritage at the national historic site.
Costumed re-enactors will offer interactive historic demonstrations inside the reconstructed Fort Vancouver from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On the Vancouver Barracks Parade Ground, opposite Officers Row, the site’s military history will be reflected through historic weapons demonstrations at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
If You Go
• What: National Park Service Centennial.
• Where: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, 1501 E. Evergreen Blvd., Vancouver.
• When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 27.
• Cost: Free in all NPS sites from Aug. 25 to 28.
In the Great Meadow, across from Pearson Air Museum, re-enactors from the 1st Oregon Volunteer Cavalry will represent the site’s history more than 150 years ago, during the Civil War era.
The opening ceremony at 10 a.m. will feature the introduction of a new exhibit at Pearson Air Museum — a DeHavilland DH-4B biplane. The airplane was restored by Century Aviation in East Wenatchee.
British forces flew the DH-4s into combat starting in 1916, but Vancouver’s biplane will represent a Liberty from around 1919.
The DH-4B will be a permanent exhibit at Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E. Fifth St.
A time capsule at the Visitor Center, 1501 E. Evergreen Blvd., also will have a 100-year focus — looking ahead to 2116. The capsule containing visitors’ notes and items reflecting present-day Fort Vancouver will be officially sealed at 1 p.m. The capsule is to be opened in 2116 for the park service bicentennial.
The system was created when the National Park Service Organic Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Woodrow Wilson on Aug. 25, 1916.
The celebration will include the McLoughlin House, 713 Center St., Oregon City, Ore., which is part of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. There will be tours of the home every hour from 10:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., with a short historical vignette following each tour. The vignette portrays the family of Dr. John McLoughlin, the Hudson’s Bay Co. chief factor at Fort Vancouver, in August 1850.
