New Interpretive Sign Honors Mullan Road Halfway House

PRESCOTT – Some may consider Prescott the middle of nowhere, but in the late 1800's, many considered it halfway to somewhere. Beginning in 1869, Prescott residents Benjamin and Malinda Flathers provided a forage station and accommodations for travelers along the Mullan Road. Their station was called Halfway House because it was located halfway between Fort Walla Walla and the road's Snake River crossing near Lyons Ferry.

Last Friday, Walla Walla 2020 Historic Sites & Markers Project coordinator Daniel Clark gave a presentation at the Prescott Elementary School, about the significance and location of the former Flathers' forage station and Halfway House. The presentation was followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site of a newly placed interpretive sign honoring the site.

Dave Flathers, brother of the late Linda Flathers Parsley, attended the presentation and assisted with the ribbon-cutting. Linda, a 1961 Prescott graduate, wrote "Dancing with Mules," a history of Northern Walla Walla County, which provided many facts and photos used in the presentation and on the sign.

The Mullan Road was the first engineered wagon road in the northwest and was built by a crew led by Lt. John Mullan from 1859-1862. It began at Fort Walla Walla and ended at Fort Benton, Montana, connecting the Columbia and Missouri rivers.

The Flathers' established Halfway House just south of the present intersection of Highway 124 and 125, and west of where the town of Prescott was later to be established in 1882. Many Flathers descendants are still living in the area and throughout the Northwest.

The new sign is a part of Walla Walla 2020's Historic Sites and Markers project which is dedicated to telling the stories and marking significant sites, many of which are unknown to the public, in Walla Walla history. The group will place and dedicate signs for Walla Walla's Germantown and Chinatown in October.

History websites with information on each of the current marker sites may be found at http://www.ww2020.net/historic-sites/. Brochures on each site are also available for download.

Plans are currently underway for the development of a Mullan Road Historic Site at the corner of the original Fort Walla Walla military reservation on 13th Avenue at Abadie Street in Walla Walla. The Mullan Road left the Fort Walla Walla complex on the hill where the VA Medical Center is now located, then proceeded north toward what is now 13th Ave.

Walla Walla 2020 also offers research reports as part of their Research and Plaque service program. The reports cost $100 and cover a property's history all the way back to when it was bare ground. Researched properties, which must be over 50 years old, are eligible to display a plaque listing the date the building was constructed and the names of its owners and builders.

Properties that have been accepted are listed, along with a photo of the property and a completed research report, on the Walla Walla 2020 Interactive Map of Historic Properties, which can be viewed on the organization's website at http://www.ww2020.net.