MOSES LAKE — Some students in the Columbia Basin will get a chance to experience history at close range this summer. The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation is accepting applications for its four-day Youth Heritage Project, which will be July 13-16 in Ellensburg this year.

“We go to different places in the state every year … and do a deep dive into a place,” said Moira Nadal, director of preservation for the WTHP. “We … want the students to have a chance to get to know a place. They could be in a classroom anywhere, (but) walking around, spending time in a place, doing site visits, those are really important.”

The Youth Heritage Project is free of charge; the Foundation provides lodging, meals and transportation to the sites. With volunteer teachers serving as guides and mentors, they’ll learn about the relationship between historic and cultural preservation and alternative energy, according to an announcement from the Foundation, and visit museums and a wind farm. They’ll also have time to explore Ellensburg itself.

“(There) may be a walking tour, or an architectural tour,” Nadal said. “In past years we’ve attended events that have been hosted by the local Main Street community. Every year is a little different.”

Last year, the Youth Heritage Project explored the Mountains to Sound Greenway in the North Bend and Snoqualmie areas, according to the WTHP. They visited Snoqualmie Falls and learned about the Snoqualmie Tribe’s history and culture, toured a hydroelectric museum, visited the site of a town drowned by a dam and went through the Northwest Railway Museum. This year’s itinerary is still being hammered out, Nadal said.

The learning isn’t all passive. The students do projects and give presentations on what they’ve learned.

“We give them practice working in groups and public speaking, which are things that they’re going to need either in higher education or in the working world,” Nadal said. “(They) go up on stage and present their final projects at a town hall, and everyone has to have a speaking part … It’s low-stakes practice doing a deep dive and synthesizing a lot of different types of information.”

Over the course of the four days, Nadal said students learn to appreciate history and possibly even consider a career in it.

“(There’s) a lot of exposure to potential career paths in cultural resources,” Nadal said. “You realize you can work at a museum, you can be an archivist, you could be an archaeologist, you could be a historian. A lot of kids don’t necessarily know that.”

The Youth Heritage Project is open to all high school-age students, whether public, private or home school, at no charge. Information and applications can be found at https://bit.ly/YouthHeritage2026.

    Students learn to braid a rug with traditional materials at last year’s Youth Heritage Project. This year’s project will explore alternative energy and history in the Ellensburg area.
  

    Students give their presentations at the Washington Trust for Historical Preservation’s Youth Heritage Project last year.