Background
Old Man House was the largest longhouse built on Puget Sound in the
U.S. state of Washington. Lying at the center of the Suquamish
winter village on Agate Pass, just south of the present-day town of
Suquamish, it was home to Chief Sealth and Chief Kitsap.
History
The name of the site in Lushootseed was D'Suq'Wub, meaning "clear
salt water," and is the source of the name of the Suquamish people.
The name "Old Man House" comes from the Chinook Jargon word
"oleman" meaning "old, worn out."
Archeological investigations have revealed that the village site
was occupied for at least 2000 years. Accounts vary as to when the
longhouse itself was constructed; many sources indicate it was
built in the late 18th or early 19th century, but it might have
been built earlier. Reports of the longhouse's size also vary,
putting its length between 600 and 1000 feet.
The lands around Old Man House were retained by the Suquamish
tribe after the Point Elliott Treaty was signed in 1855, becoming
the Port Madison Indian Reservation. However, the longhouse was
burned by the U.S. government in 1870, after Sealth's death. The
destruction of the longhouse was intended to encourage the
Suquamish to spread out across their reservation and take up
farming. After it was burned, the Suquamish rebuilt their village
at the site and continued to live there. In 1886 the federal
government divided the reservation into allotments which were
assigned to individual Suquamish families.
In 1904 the U.S. War Department acquired land along Agate Pass,
including the site of Old Man House, to build fortifications to
protect the new naval shipyards at Bremerton. The village site had
to be moved, and the tribe lost much of its water access. The
fortifications were never built, and the land purchased by the
military was eventually sold in 1937 to a private developer and
subdivided for vacation homes.
In 1950, the Washington Parks and Recreation Department
purchased an acre of waterfront where Old Man House had been
located and set it aside as a state park. The park was returned to
the Suquamish Tribe on August 12, 2004.
Extracted from various internet sources
If you find a Travel Bug or Geocoin and want to move it, Great!
The rule is you must log that you retrieved it and log it when you
drop it into another cache.
This cache has been placed with the permission of the Suquamish
Tribe.
Congratulations to Mack-Daddy and slowestmover for
FTF
Now some questions:
At WP1
Q1. How long was the longhouse? ABC
At WP2
Q2. When was the archaeological examination done? DEFG
Q3. How wide in the middle was the long house? HI
Q4. How wide at the ends was the long house? JK
Q5. How many numbered panels are there for construction of the
house? L
The final N47 43.UVW W122 33.XYZ
U = A-F
V = E-J
W = H-D
X = E-H+1
Y = L-D
Z = F-2
While here enjoy the other caches in the area.
The Slab
St. Peter's Gate
Buffalos, In Suquamish?
Suquamish Nature Preserve