Trail Foundation Preserves Historic Event With Education
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Features Jim Zimmerman portraying 1st Lieutenant C.E.S. Wood in a presentation provided by the Nez Perce Trail Foundation. The lecture featured the new interactive trail map using Google Earth showing the audience the recently completed Nez Perce Trail virtual tour.
What a great new technical resource to engage students!
living history ...
After viewing the Google Earth map of the trail, Nez Perce Trail Foundation member Jim Zimmerman portrayed an accurate profile of the role of 1st Lieutenant C.E.S. Wood, who served as the Aid De Camp to General Oliver Otis Howard during the Nez Perce War of 1877. Zimmerman came all the way to West Yellowstone from his home in La Grange, Ky. to give the profile of Lt. Wood.
Trail Foundation preserves historic event with education
By MIKE MOORE West Yellowstone News | Posted: Friday, November 2, 2012 9:14 amMore than 30 community members from West Yellowstone and the surrounding areas came together at the Holiday Inn Conference Center on the evening of Oct. 19 for a special, two-part presentation provided by the Nez Perce Trail Foundation.
The lecture featured both a demonstration of the new interactive trail map they’ve recently put online, followed by foundation member Jim Zimmerman’s portrayal of 1st Lieutenant C.E.S. Wood, who was an integral part of the Nez Perce War of 1877.
The goal of the presentation was to reach out and give back to the West Yellowstone community, while also increasing the public’s awareness of a major turn of events in United States history that resulted in the loss of life for many Nez Perce elder women and men, women, children and warriors who were buried along the trail.
The demonstration started with foundation consultant Ron Hall showing the audience the recently completed Nez Perce Trail virtual tour. Created by Hall for the foundation, the online tour maps out the 1,170-mile trail the Nez Perce tribe made as they fled from the U.S. Army in 1877. The online feature corresponds with the Nez Perce National Historic Trail auto tour route.
The trail begins at Wallowa Lake in Oregon and winds through sections of Idaho, the Bitterroot Valley in Western Montana, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming and ends at the Bear Paw Battlefield in northern Montana. The long journey was a result of the Nez Perce attempting to flee to Canada to avoid capture from the U.S. Army.
Hall demonstrated how viewers could learn more about the tragic route by clicking on various locations along the map, which provides additional information about what took place in critical locations along the trail.
“Of the 14 historical trails designated by Congress, we’re the first to have a virtual trail,” foundation executive director Jim Evans said. “It’s been up for a short period, but we’ve had about a 20 percent increase in visitation (on our website) since it’s been up.”
According to Evans, the new online feature will be a big help with people planning their auto tours for years to come, which will help the foundation continue to educate and spread awareness to it’s visitors.
“Our mission is to preserve, protect and commemorate a very pivotal historic event in United States history,” Evans said. “From the exile and captivity of the Nez Perce people; we want to learn from this event to prevent it from happening again.”
Following the interactive trail map viewing, foundation member Jim Zimmerman came out in front of the audience in a period correct U.S. Army uniform to deliver an in-depth portrayal of 1st Lieutenant C.E.S. Wood, who served as the Aid De Camp to General Oliver Otis Howard during the Nez Perce War of 1877.
Zimmerman began his talk by describing Wood’s early childhood and how he eventually became a West Point graduate. He spoke on his involvement with the war and how he became quite fond of the Nez Perce people, despite being Aid De Camp to General Howard.
“It’s a fascinating story and back home (in Kentucky) people don’t know about the Nez Perce people,” Zimmerman told the crowd following his speech. “I do this to make the character and story more compelling.”
According to the Kentucky native, he began portraying Wood last summer and has given the presentation twice back home and once at Fort Missoula.
Zimmerman said he first became familiar with the Nez Perce story in the 1970s because of his involvement with breeding Appaloosa horses. The Nez Perce were well known for these horses, as they selectively breed thousands of them, and had anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 with them while they were on the trail.
“I’m so involved with this foundation and what it represents, I needed to find a way to educate the public,” he said. “I thought the best way was to portray a war character because it gives it more personality.”
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