Fall For History one for the books!
Some of those portraying persons buried at Nine Mile Cemetery were, from left, Sue Halley portraying a 1918 influenza victim, Norma Douglas portraying Wallace madam “Delores” Arnold, Bruce Flohr portraying Wallace banker Milton Flohr, Terri Robinson portraying her grandmother, Ethel Trowbridge, Anita Price portraying Mary (Mrs. “Firpo”) Bardelli, Arnold Shelton portraying Herman Rossi and Mike Feiler portraying World War I casualty Pvt. James Sage. Not shown are Alan Williams, who portrayed Civil War veteran William Hoffman, Cindy Lien, who portrayed a pioneer cook, and In…
Courtesy photos The Fall For History committee presented cash awards to winners in its historical writing contest. Wallace eighth- and 10th-graders wrote essays last spring on people buried at Nine Mile Cemetery. Winners for 10th grade were, from left, Megan Morin, first, Taylor Braun, second, and Gary Gunderson, third; eight-graders Jaden House, first, and Elli Welch, third. Not shown is Anthony Helseth, second place. The presentation Thursday morning kicked off Fall For History 2018, which ran through Sunday.
Sera White, right, leads a group down the street to another house on the annual Fall For History Home Tour. This year’s tour included five homes and two churches, ending with refreshments at one of the homes. The tour was again a sellout.
WALLACE — Just when you think Wallace can’t outdo itself, it proves you wrong.
That’s exactly what they did this last weekend with their Fall For History festival.
With a theme centered around preservation, the atmosphere suited Wallace better than ever and it showed.
“We sailed right through, it was so wonderful,” event organizer Corki Mattila said. “It’s amazing how many people, both out-of-towners and people from Wallace who have moved, came back and attended the events with the locals. It was lovely.”
The event began Thursday evening with a special on historic trails, which was well-received, and then proceeded into a full lineup of events on Saturday before wrapping up on Sunday.
“We had such good attendance. Everything was well attended and well received,” Mattila said. “The weather could have cooperated a little better, but overall it was an absolute success.”
Many of the events, including a dinner and presentation at the Wallace Elks, as well as the home tours were sold out; which was no surprise to the event organizers.
“Groups were coming into the houses on top of one another,” Mattila said. “People really loved the home tours.”
The Fall For History committee was also pleased to announce the winners of their essay contest.
Earlier this year, students from the eighth and 10th grades of Wallace Jr./Sr. High School were given the opportunity to listen to guest speakers as they spoke about various historic figures from Wallace’s storied past, they were then charged with writing about those experiences.
“We couldn’t have done this without the school’s participation,” Mattila said. “But we were pleased with the results.”
The winners were 10th-graders Megan Morin, Taylor Braun and Gary Gunderson (1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively); and eighth-graders Jaden House, Anthony Helseth and Elli Welch.
It should be interesting to see how the committee plans on outdoing themselves next year.