Based on all the current information, the WCGS board decided it is best to postpone our April 4 seminar. We have been in touch with both speakers about a date in the future that would work for both of them and have settled on Sat., Aug. 29 in the morning, using the same format as previously published. We have also contacted Bishop Place and put it on their calendar so the venue will be the same as previously published. It’s not too early to mark your calendar for this informative and, what we think, is an exceptional mini-seminar with very well-known and much in demand speakers. We thank both Bob and Steve for their flexibility in working with us to re-schedule their presentations at a later date. Monica Peters, WCGS Corresponding Secretary

For questions or more information contact WCGS President, Sue Kreikemeier at: 509-635-1303 or aerocraft@completebbs.com. Please RSVP to Sue or whitmancgs@gmail.com by March 28 to accommodate handouts & refreshments. The seminar is free, but donations are welcome at the door.

Directions: Turn off Bishop Boulevard onto Klemgard Ave., follow Klemgard Ave. up the hill and turn left at the top. Do not go into the front entrance, but turn right, continuing up the hill and turn left at the white car ports. Find an appropriate parking place, enter the building through the main doors and go straight ahead to the Social Room.

BIOGRAPHIES OF SPRING SEMINAR SPEAKERS

Robert King’s biography includes the following:

Robert E. King grew up in Pullman where he graduated from WSU with degrees in Anthropology and History.  He completed his Ph.D. at the Univ. of Pennsylvania in Anthropology (specialty: Ethnohistory & Archaeology) and since 1981 has worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska.  He has been the BLM’s State Archaeologist in Alaska for over 33 years, with his work taking him to much of the state.  He has a strong interest in federal land laws including homesteading, and has spoken and written on this subject for several years.  Currently, he writes a guest monthly column on the history of homesteading for the Homestead National Monument of America’s electronic newsletter.  Locally, he is best known in Whitman County as a frequent contributor to the “Bunchgrass Historian,” having authored over 30 articles in the past nearly 25 years on a variety of topics.  He is also an avid genealogist and has co-written several books on various families, with some of his relatives settling in Whitman County in the 1870s.  He maintains homes in both Anchorage and Pullman.  

Steven Branting’s biography includes the following:

Since 2000, many of this country’s leading history, geography and preservation organizations — including the American Association for State and Local History, The History Channel and the Society for American Archaeology — have honored Steven Branting for the depth, scope and variety of his research and field work.

In 2009, he was nominated for the American Historical Association’s prestigious William and Edwyna Gilbert Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the teaching of history through the publication of journal articles. Branting has written eight (8) books on the history of Lewiston. Branting’s articles have appeared in, among others, the Western Historical Quarterly, The History Teacher, Idaho Magazine, Nostalgia and Idaho Yesterdays.

The Idaho State Historical Society conferred upon him the 2011 Esto Perpetua Award, its highest honor, citing his leadership in “some of the most significant preservation and interpretation projects undertaken in Idaho.” Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter awarded him that year’s Outstanding Cultural Tourism Award for showcasing Idaho’s heritage.

In 2013, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution awarded Branting its coveted Historical Preservation Medal. In 2015, Lewis-Clark State College selected him for the Marion Shinn Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2016 he was awarded the President’s Medallion for his efforts to safeguard the heritage that the college and community have shared since the 1890s.

During 2018, the Lewiston Tribune published 104 of his columns highlighting events and people who featured greatly in the history of Lewis-Clark State College, which was celebrating its 125h anniversary and for whom Branting holds the office of “Institutional Historian,” the first since Henry Leonidas Talkington in the 1940s.

Branting’s eighth Lewiston book — The Words That Were Our Names — was released in October 2019.