The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA—Time to test your pre-CSI-era fugitive hunting skills at Fort Walla Walla on July 15 and 16. Join the search for the escaped criminal Orvy Whipstitch Horvath, known to keep company with lowlifes and horse thieves. He escaped from Walla Walla’s territorial prison and took an escape route through Fort Walla Walla, leaving behind careless clues.

Over this two-day family-friendly event, visitors are invited to form search teams and help track down this desperado. Successful teams will be rewarded with prizes from the museum store.

The game is an interactive puzzle, where clues throughout the museum include a wanted poster that might lead to a newspaper clipping detailing Horvath’s escape, which might lead to the horse he stole, and onward. Participants will need their wits and observation skills to trace the fugitive’s trail through the grounds to discover the criminal in his hiding spot.

This is a weekend-long event; searchers can join anytime from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday, July 16, at 2 p.m., the museum will present Living History: Lettice Millican Clark Reynolds, pioneer settler and community leader.

Lettice Millican, portrayed by Pam Myers, was born in 1830, the oldest of 12 children. In 1843, her family headed west with a wagon train carrying 1,000 settlers. After her family settled in the Willamette Valley, she married Ransom Clark, who, in 1855, obtained a 640-acre donation claim along Yellowhawk Creek. Lettice and her husband came to Walla Walla to “prove up” their claim in 1855 but were driven out by the Indian War of that year. Ransom Clark died in Portland in 1859, and Lettice returned to Walla Walla the same year to complete their cabin, which is now located in the Museum’s Pioneer Village. She was the first white woman to reside in the Walla Walla Valley after the Whitman tragedy, later marrying mill owner Almos Reynolds and becoming a public benefactor who made substantial gifts to Whitman College