Transcripts For CSPAN Portland Maine 20171111

States. We are founded in 1822. Collecting at this location since 1907 in portland. Historical city was in brunswick and moved to portland the 1870s, we moved from and c library to city hall once the society was donated, we library in 1907. In 2007, we underwent restoration and renovation and 13,000 square feet of archival Storage Space to the building. E that is what were in today, temperature and humidity control, climate controlled space, we store our collection. E have offsite Storage Space we use for larger collections and since weve outgrown our location. We connect on main, but have broader scope and reach back to the 15th century, terrible hat is not a amount of our collection, the bulk of our materials are from he 18th century and 19th century, from about the 17001900, although we have colonial and dating from the 1600s relating to canada and ime newsmakers. We are showing the treasures of society. Storical early in years we collected broadly on history, anything that had to do with american or history, we collected. As the decades have gone by, we our focus to be about maine. What were showing today is examples that relate to Maine History and some that have National Significance that would relate history as a es whole. We considered these sort of howpieces, they dont come out for research, so we brought some out just to highlight the collections. R well start with two pieces that date from the american the revolutionary war era. We have here a lock of george hair, that was given to eliesa wadsworth. When George Washington died in eliza wads worth, who was he aunt of Henry Longfellow wadsworth. Built building on the campus, Martha Washington eliza this piece of hair in 1800. Longfellow had the piece of hair put in a ocket with an engraveing that indicated what this piece is and 1800. Om it was given in so this piece, we consider one f our treasures of Maine Historical society and speaks to the real cult of george ashington after his death relics were given, parades were honorary sts, lots of activity and it shows just how revered he was in the united tates shortly after the revolution. The enscription reads, washingtons hair given by mrs. W ington to mrs. Eliza wadworth. 1850,. Longfellow, in that is when the locket was made. His piece here is the letter book of Benedict Arnold on anddition to quebec in 1775 it starts with a journal by john of john , a copy montisores notes. What is interesting about this piece, from a prove nance standpoint, it was presented to Historical Society in on in our collecting history, so much so it is historical the society by colonel aaron burr. Easy to not have to qualify that. Again, one of is, the treasures of maine historic at society. Published ave been over time and it has been microfilmed, most researchers book itself, e despite the content, because it arnold has benedict its own Intrinsic Value and you can see a copy of his signature there. Benedict arnold was a general during the revolutionary war infamous for becoming a traitor and transitioning to the british side. And lt very slighted underappreciated during the revolutionary war and thought ed get a better deal on the other side. Didnt really work out in his 1775, he was most ered one of the successful cohorts in the continental army. Here isparticular piece an auction list from the hms is of particular interest to me personally as librarian, but also is one of i consider more ethic main stories and military history. 1812, the u. S. Of navy was not terribly of its navalut one victories stemmed from a battle of moheingan, the ms boxer, the british vessel us enterprise fought off the coast of monhegan, the was victorious, but both captains were killed as naval battle. E survived, but s captain blige, the british killed almost instant anuously. Port, brought back to port of portland from where the le took place and the where captain burrows soon passed away. Oth men were given a joint funeral by the city of portland and buried side by side at the cemetery at the base of hill and buried with waters, who was woundd and died later. Le years the society, we have the auction, what you see here, as everythingeipts from from the building of the coffin to digging of the grave to the hearse for the captain. There was one hearse in town in paint a wagon to black and the goods sold funds this sale helped to pay for the funerals. War of nally during the 1812, privateers or u. S. Navy port, in g prizes to maine a number of ports, central port, the and the goods from the captured vessel were auctioned off. Funds would go to the u. S. Government or in the case of divided , chairs amongst the crew with portion going to the u. S. Government. Ere we have an auction list, which was created by dr. Thornton, the u. S. Marshall a ing the war of 1812, and list of the items that were sold off of the boxer. Ome items have returned to Maine Historical society, including a medicine chest, a number of chairs and what we one of the cannons, although the story is certainly cannon, but whether the exact cannon off the boxer is for debate. But this particular piece is ndicative of like i said, one of the most romantic naval history. N maine the captain burrows the american philadelphia. In 2013s, a number of his members ts and family came to the eastern sem marry, along with descendents of blige, from england and we had a joint funeral the british th onsulate and u. S. Navy to commemorate the anniversary. The war was unpopular in maine for a variety of reasons, we frontier state, werent well defendd and it inhibited to trade, it was a financial disaster for maine and massachusetts. T was unpopular and captain blize, although british, had been in maine for sometime, along the coast, and was very well respected. Was a gentleman and was revered amongst people in maine. Died, they felt it was appropriate thing to do to give them both a proper funeral. Funeral procession throughout the city, they had a funeral ceremony at the local church and then brought to be buried side by side. It is unusual, i think that is all the s the story more romantic, it is sort of enemies, really the camaraderie that people in aine felt for the british, so shortly after the american revolution. What we have here is an example buried treasure. Island off richmond the coast of cape elizabeth, ere we have an ambertype of Richmond Island, maine. A buried treasure was located by son, who were his lowing a field and came across this jar here. It was broken and thinking it ust to be a rum jar, as the story goes, thinking just to be a rum jar from early settlers, aside. T it a younger son was kind of rushing the dirt off and noticed these coins were inside, this signet ring. S legend would have it, it is believed these coins were buried y a gentleman or a man named walter bagnal, who was not a gentleman indeed, but unscrupulous and murder by native americans for good go. On, as the story would and that either he nor an assistant or someone that may robbed him immediately in the at the time around his buried this have particular treasure. So these coins and this the thought to be from the 570s and said to belong to an english nobelman, signet ring, amongst the coins, dating from of Queen Elizabeth i charles i of d england, predate 1631, the year begnal was killed. Nd he lived in the immediate vicinity there is legend to say it is possible that this money when he was m him killed and then later buried by actually duals who committed the murder, although it is unclear. Of the nly inhab tant island that would be date appropriate of european decent, its been connected to him. This is sort of an example of recreation vignette of what it looks like when it was would be again, this Richmond Island. These particular coins, they 1570s, this e 1602. Cular one here is true buried treasure off the coast of maine, we have murder, mystery, mayhem, perhaps some irates, maybe even a knights temp lar, certainly as close as we will get to buried treasure historical Maine Society. This piece we have here is a of the declaration 4, independence, printed july 1776. One of ticular item is 26 known copies. Estimatedthat they to maybe 250 copies made on the copies of, but 26 known survived and theyre disbursed throughout the United States and one of themtain and historical at Maine Society since 1890s. Here we provide access to our as ection in person Traditional Research library or also showcase our collection through digital network. Main memory for example, the items auctioned rom hms boxer that returned to Maine Historical society exist in our online database, free on mainmemory. Net. You can take a look, see receipts from the building of casket, from the items auctioned off, from the digging the grave, the Richmond Island coins, George Washingtons hair, this material on our website with interpretive content and you can browse our collections in full. A museum ve collections database, where all f our museum items have been photographed and inventoried online, our collections are fully searchable. Able to showcase those online for people who cant come to the maine you are l society, if not physically able to. They serve as companion piece so can explore what we have and perhaps make a trip to ee us and see the items in person. Once an item has been digitized, it is available to the public and accessible. It is a nice combination of digital history, 21st century collecting, preservation and access, as well as Traditional Museum stewardship. Wed like to be able to ranscribe documents, digitize documents and make them available at 3 00 in the morning from nebraska, just as easy as at 2 00 in the afternoon here in portland. Maine Historical Society has a long time ng for and i hope what people will learn is that we not only maine, but about maines place in the United States, about the role that played in American History, about the importance of our state and the relevance of also placing us in the larger context and taking Maine History and understanding fits in to the larger american historical narrative. Just we like to be able to showcase things that are interesting, things people might be able to spoi and be able to browse and learn something they see t know before and to some of these collections that we take so much time and energy preserve. The purpose of our collections are to be used and to be viewed explored, so we hope that people get the takeaway pieces are not locked behind a closed door, but are who has an anyone interest in history, has an interest in collecting or has in preservation. Were in the stratwater section of portland, at tate museum, located three miles from downtown portland. Completed in built 1755, begun in 1753, took two to build. It was built on a piece of land, in between the four stroudwater river. It was built in such a style georgian style architecture, largest house time. In portland at the portland was known as falmouth until 1785. For 30 years this house standing here was actually in the stroudwater section of falmouth. Tate, built for george his wife mayor and he four sons who came in 1751. Appointed by basically to be theh royal navy mast agent for the area. Someone who is n charge of actually recognizing and appropriating white pine ndiameter of 72 feet and height of at minimum in order to provide british navy with their masts masts were an important commodity back then, just as oil today. When captain tate came over obviously we were still part of britain at the we were at britain, so all english subjects here and tate ople that captain would have hired to do his work ould have been the local folks around here and they would have helped support the industry, jobs, which ave had im sure they were grateful to have, and it was that way until war, which wasary 20 years later. Revolutionary war approached, very interesting family. For the tate as a matter of fact, within his actually one of them left home here early, went to stayed pretty much abroad in england. He supported the british side of revolutionary war, his name was samuel. There is some believe he actually brought cornwallace over here to america to the colonies to support the effort here. Another one of captain tates sons, actually the youngest, his name was robert, marched off to concord concorde, lexington. There was dynamic within the family and im sure that captain tate back at the time had to know, tread u neutral ground. In fact, he actually lived here he died in 1794, at the age of 94. He never left and was, you a citizen. D here as tate mily captain lived here until 1794, when he he lost his wife in 1770, she was tragically killed. Had gone out to their store house, where they kept food was booby trapped. The reason it was, was because from thes were missing store house, so the son, william, had set up a booby trap and everybody in the family supposedly knew. Forgotten ntly had and had asked their servant there and grab some things out of the store so e and betty refused and mary went out herself, opened the door. Was was a musket that ready to fire once the door was opened, which it did and she was tragically killed. Set up by rap was william, one of their sons. Years later, wo convicted, but a year after king. Was pardoned by the died, fter his mother continued to stay in the area and eventually took over the and after his father died also took over the family business. William lost the house to creditors. Over to the n it courts down in massachusetts, boston. I think he probably lost it because his trade was drying up bit. There was the impending embargo 1807, eastern soboard was being shut down to trade and i elieve that was he was a victim of that. So the house was turned over to reditors and from that point on, was sold to what became the absentee owners over period of the next 130 years. House was not changed very owner here was the third did put a wall up dividing the in half nd the house and therefore it became a twofamily dwelling. Was never any plumbing put in here, never any neglect, the o by in e was preserved and so 1931, the colonial dames of maine, in the state of bought the house. And they took it over from that idea of being he able to develop this into a visitors could the sights within the house. Room was used by george and mary tate for their dinner and have had their supper or dinner delivered from the kitchen, which is right next it would have only been george and mary eating in here. The servant and would have eaten out in the kitchen area. Dinner, ould have had possibly by fire and candlelight. Candles were made at the time, tallow or beeswax expensive. The fact mice would have liked for food, candles would have been lock the up after use in a container that is over on wall there. In terms of the fire places, the are eight here in house and among them all, it 30 to 40 taken about cord of wood per year for both thisand cooking to support house. Above the fire place you see eautiful panelling, all the panelling in this room is original, the colors in the see in the ou panelling are, we know are pretty close to the colors they back then because of the paint analysis. Very, very ere is huge. There are a few pieces in the house that are original. The house was lost to receivership in 1803. Everything was liquidated in the house. This piece here is called the standish. Usednow that it might be as an index set. That was wrapped up in cloth, kept in a corner. Have been for lighting if they were writing. And because of the ink took a long time to drive back then, there is powder on the left to help drive that. We aree sitting room, going into the kitchen, the largest room of the house. Entire width of the back of the house. The kitchen was an important part of the house. It was basically the central operation of the house. This is where the food was prepared. This was where food was preserved. And this would have been where a loved supplies were to feed the family. The fireplace over here is original. The bricks that you see back from 1755. Here in the fireplace, you can see a behind oven. That would have been used for baking. They would have built a small fire in there, covered it overcome using this little door here, and allow the fire to keep that particular area until it was white hot. And then they knew it was ready to go when the white ashes collected on the side of the bricks. They would have to dust that and clean out those ashes, and in go the baking goods, starting with the items that took the longest to bake. They would have been put in the back, and the shorter time baking items with it brought up to the front. We believe this is original to the house. This is a crane. And over here you see a clock jack. That we brought in. Itis period, what we brought into the house in later years. It takes the purpose of the clock jack is is to turn the spit, so they would have had meat on the spit the turnaround. Once this was wound up, the process of turning the spitz, it goes for about 20 minutes. We are going up to the second floor of the house, and you will note the staircase is rather steep. It is so because we have a center chimney behind it, and the chimney to this house is very large. So we so they had to put the staircase up in front of it and made it very steep, and for that reason. Now we are entering the parlor chamber. Is a word used for bedroom back then, and the fact it is above the parlor downstairs is the reason why it is called a parlor chamber. This room would have been used by captain tait and his wife mainly for sleeping, but also mary would have entertained her friends in here. Captain tait would have had his room on the other side of the house, on this floor. Very would have entertained friends, or she and captain tait would have had their tea at bedtime. Here. Are enough closets they typically did not have them because honestly they did not have a lot of clothes. They might have used the same clothes from day to day. But there is a covered, which would have been used for linens, awesomely silverware or tea service, and valuables. They would have spared their close stowed their close they chest. At any bureau or a the bed they slept in would have been custommade and is somewhat short. That is because back then the custom of the day was to sleep propped up. That was the belief of the day for better sleep and for health reasons. Actresses were made out of straw goose down, or and the coverings you see over the bed are the design that came from the day. We found some fabric in the house and we were able to produce it into this particular design here. This room leads into a backhaul. There is a staircase back hall. There is a staircase they goes into the back hall from the kitchen. There are three rooms on the third floor. Backeft as you go into the part of the house, you will go into the childrens room, where they slept, and then finally into a guest quarters, which is a room about the same size as this. This house is the only house left in america that was built masked agent. Y a it is intact very well due to the elect i mentioned before due to the neglect i mentioned before and has been preserved. It is a great place to view and to look and see how things were built back then. You can see rich paneling along the walls. You can see the structure of the house up on the third story, how it was put together. You can see the foundation and how that was put together. It is pretty fascinating if you are interested in old homes and you want to see something in great detail. This would be a great spot for people to visit. We are in the Portland Observatory, which is a National Historic landmark and the last remaining maritime signal tower in the United States. The observatory was built in 1807. The Portland Observatory was built as a resist venture. It was built by a captain, a ship captain, and he created a business around signaling ships into the port of portland. Wonderful natural harbor and was a great center for shipping. There was a very Important Competitive advantage he would have if people knew ships were coming to the port. The idea was to build a tower on a high point of ground and put a topiccope and the captain moody could look into the harbor and identify ships coming in. In those days there was a lot of here and there were many different kinds of ships. The business idea was to charge people have their boats or their ships signal as they came into port. They would actually provide a flag, and captain moody would raise their flags when he saw the ships coming into port from the telescope. From the beginning, the observatory was also a site where people could go to the top andouristic activity, captain build a signal tower as a business venture, but he also charged people to go to the top, and there are wonderful early documents where it is documented cents toharged 12 1 2 go to the top. In 1817, president james monroe went to the top. The building has six floors, and we are not sure what they were for, but the floors, or part of the purpose of the floors was to provide Structural Integrity to the building. It is built very much like a ship, so there are not existing plans. Captain moody made a model, like you make a ships model, and used those measurements to create the design for the observatory. Buildingsing up the dallas, and what is so interesting about the observatory is it is built like a ship in a silly is actually held down by ballast, which is a heavyweight in the bottom of the building, a wooden cradle. The building is resting on the ground. It does not have a Solid Foundation or is tied down to anything. It is tied down by a heavyweight, just like a ship would have been. Tons of have the 22 rock sitting in the lower level that is holding the building down. In the recent restoration, all these timbers were checked, so that we know that that timber cradle is solid and heavy weight of granite level is holding this building. Here we are almost at the top level of the lantern, and you can see the tops of the large timbers that make the octagonal shape of the observatory, and you can see a lot of the knots and parts of the trees that were still remaining. And these were 65foot timbers used to create the observatory. They were very big trees that were brought into this. He uses a complicated system where he built a set or frame from the building and used a pulley system to raise up the eight posts come and there are markings on the posts where the intervening structural members were placed. You can actually see some of the hardware. This is the hardware that holds the flagpoles at the top, and knotsare some fun tree and some of the paperwork that holds the building together is evident in these tops of the timbers. Now we are in the floor underneath the lantern deck, and this is where the captain stored the signal flags. And hes all the ships, he would run down and grabbed a single flight and raise that to indicate which ship was coming into port. Today the observatory continues the signal. E have a number of flags it is fun to think as the observer theory observatory still pushing. I want to show you flags that were like the ones that meeting used. The role types of flags used to signal different types of ships, to indicate to the owners and to the Business People that there was cargo coming in, they could line up their longshoremen, inform families that ships were coming back in. This was important. When you are sailing, you do not know when you are going to arrive, so you had some lead time. You could see almost 20 miles out, and so that gave some lead time for the families and the Business Owners to get ready for the ships to come in. For toag is the flag indicate the brig. One way up was for one brig. The other way up was for two brigs. It was very ingenious how he used the flags. That was important because in the early days of sale, type of ship gave you a lot of information about what was coming into port. There also were pennants used to add the information. This was a way to add on the perception of spirit with this with the one pennant in the flight depending which way up it is flying, that would tell you how many brigs were coming into port. It was an ingenious system. Well as a visual tool to indicate to the people on land whatifs were coming in. We are now in the lantern. The place were captain moody did all his work. The telescope would have been up here. The telescope, the original one, was lost in the 1930s. Now we are on the lantern deck of the observatory, and today happens to be a very foggy day. The beauty of the Portland Observatory is all the different weather conditions were evidence of here, and the captain kept records of that while he was at the top of the tower in the early 19th century. It is very interesting to see how he made lots of different uses of being up at the top of portland in those days. The observatory operated from 1807 when it was built until the early 1920s. What happened during that period, there were better Communication Systems came in, shipping changed. There were steamships started. Over the years, the technology of transportation and communication changed. By the 1920s, the observatory was obsolete. And so what happened then was the actual, the family, the descendents of captain moody, who still owned the observatory, gave the observatory to portland as an Historic Site him as a tourist destination. And then it went through a major renovation in the 1930s in the Works Progress administration, and very recently there was a partnership with major important landmarks in portland in the late 1990s to also completely restore the building so that it can continue to be a center of historic significance in the city of portland. I think the Portland Observatory gives people a sense of what portland is about, which is that it is a seaport. It is very important, its relationship with maritime chester tatian and land transportation that happened here. It is evidenced through the Portland Observatory because this was the main ship to shore to medication. It still has that role today. You can see this building from water from various sites over time, so it is a reminder that portland has a long and interesting history and you can experience it by coming to the observatory. Today we are in casco bay, one mile off the mainland shore of portland, maine, and we are on hog island ledge, where they built fort gorge is in 1858 to help defend portland harbor. It was completed in 1865. It was built with two sister fortsto the south off to the south. They were designed to work in conjunction to defend the harbor. Everyone thinks fort gorgeous is a civil war fort when in fact it was funded long before the civil war. It was approved of congress, funded as a response to the war of 1812. Gorgeous is a handmade granite fort, and if you look at it from the top view looking down, you would see a gigantic d. Ist gorgeous, just like a d, open in the middle, and it has this wonderful parade route, and there are people that have grown up. Who have never been here and they think it is a stolid solid church. It was named after a colonial for part or for the state of maine. Im told he never set foot here. It is just an appointment. The design was probably modeled after the forts built at that time. That difference being sumter was made out of brick, and this is all gigantic blocks of granite. To think they came in here on a sailing vessel and unloaded that stuff, moved it around, and erected this entire structure by hand with derricks and blocks and tackle is just amazing. Two levels designed to hold 36 10inch guns. One porch where troops can come and go, and the port originally had one massive case gate and a secondary gate. If youre looking at the port, you would see the rooms to the officersthe port were quarters, and the rooms to the south side were more utility rooms. Vegetation you see was never designed to be here. The dirt was put here to absorb cannon fire, and year after year, seedlings, birds, grass began to spread, and if you see photos from 50 years ago, theres just grass here. Funny five years ago, and here we are today we have over here a 15foot people tree behind me here we are on the second floor in the case on the eastsoutheast side. And if you look up, you will see wese transfer cracks that are finding in this area. They only exist in this one area of the fort. Because oftially settling that is happening. On the floor, you can see these outlines of where a metal track would have been mounted to these studs that stormy. And on that track, their rear end of a large cannon carriage would have rolled. And up he or by the window, you can see an opening where the front of this carriage, a big tongue would stick into this groove, and you can see the the holes where the a big pin would drop in, and that enormous carriage would allow the cannon to swing back and forth and cover quite a broad range. The opening where that canno nball flew through remain shut at all times. There were iron shutters. The force of the cannonball would open the shutters, and then it would immediately slammed shut. Over here, you will see a flu. As you can imagine, all that cannon fire, lack powder, the amount of smoke it would generate, one of these casemates had its own flue. You will see some brackets where we suspect the soldier stood on the cannon carriage and hung their tools here. Here iniers also lived the casemate with their cannon. Here we are in one of the into chambers to the great magazine techambers to the great magazine. You can see that massive floor timbers that burned out decades ago. By 16, i always wondered what could have been so heavy that they needed floor joists that massive. It came to me one day, gunpowder, cannonballs. So i think this is where they kept cannonballs. If we walk this way, we will be able to see where they kept the gunpowder. Now, this is great magazine. You can see it is a large room. It used to be two stories. The floor was removed at some point somehow. It are burned out or was taken out. Withhis is a large room the earliest use of concrete i have ever seen. Ats can see the old sl where the individual boards were made for a form, and then giant granite blocks with shims stuck in the mortar to take up the space. Have some slots in the wall so that some air can circulate through here. You will also see two small openings in the brick work, one on the first floor, and one on the second floor. Were from the little room on the other side called the candle room, and in that opening they would place a lantern. And that lantern was the only means of illumination for this area for obvious reasons. Cobblediers who wore lutes with nail heads on the somem would have to don sort of a wool or silk sock over their boots to enter this room and working here. Ges to be a garrison with 500 troops. It was never fully garrisoned and never fired a single shot. I suspect it was obsolete by the time it was completed because armaments were developing so rapidly. Time, ande for a long caretakers came along and lived in that, and watched over it, and world war ii, they built a concrete pad that we can see down in the Parade Grounds and that was used to store what they called torpedoes. We now call them mines. They were used in an elaborate system in casco bay, because u boats came along during world war ii. The mines were manufactured two islands over. Theres a really wonderful old building still in place, and you can see where the mines were manufactured and tested, and you can see there is a Narrow Gauge Railway they would bring the mines down to the water and bring them over here and store them. Eventually, the fort was put on the national register, and i think it was 1971 the city of portland acquired the property. And since then it has just remain sort of neglected, and just recently the city has taken a renewed interest in the property come and now we have the army corps of engineers here doing a Hazard Mitigation program, making it a safer probably due to social media, this place is on andyones radiar everybody wants to experience the place for. We know we can save the structure. Then it becomes about making it accessible to more people so we can have a sustainable model to do the work that needs to be done. And then it becomes about stewardship. Making sure that this wonderful spot never falls into the hands of a Condo Development or a casino or something that would be clearly inappropriate for this space. There are lots of challenges. The immediate ones are access, because this is an island. So Everyone Needs come here by boat. Luckily it is only one mile from land. The 7000 people who come here in the summertime are coming by kayak and some of them come from the islands, others come from the mainland, and they do chores here all day, every day, all summer long. Kayaking is the easiest way to get here because you are not bound by the tides, you do not have to worry about your boat, and it is really one mile. Dle. S an easy pad you can come out with a boat. Were hoping in the coming years to put a dock in and make this more accessible to the general population. I have been coming here since i was a teenager, and it is a mystical place, especially when you start coming here as a child. Like i said before, we just do not build structures like this anymore, so it is unique. It is the only place like this that i know of in maine that is this accessible, one mile from shore, and you have got this amazing structure that we will just never see again. We have to save the desperate it is also special to me we have to save this. It is special to me because i would like to see some performance in here, shakespeare, something along those lines. It is important to the people who lived here and the people who visit here for the reasons ive mentioned before. Everyone is affected by this space. How could you not be when you step to that sally port and into that Parade Ground and see those te archways, and it is phenomenal. Peoples jaws just drop when it first see it. When they first see it. Portland is an important part of maines economy. We are a state that struggles because we lost a lot of manufacturing, like much of america in the last two decades. We used to make shoes and fabrics and paper and wood products, and has been a shrinking of those industries. It is experiencing a resurgence in fishing. Is there i have seen is a real change in the level of sophistication of the farmer and the consumer, and it has raised demand that organic food today billion or 50 billion business the country. We are filling an important market that did not exist. We have got to do a lot more to make this possible for other farmers, ones that want to transition into it in places all over the country, and make it easier for them to get into this market. Your are paid better, you do not have to handle toxic chemicals, it is better for the environment. It is a winwin on all levels when my kids were growing up, i decided i wanted to get involved in local l6 have a say in my community. And someone who i knew from my farm stand suggested to be i should run for the state legislature. I just got interested in the idea being engaged and a participant in the democratic process back in the 1990s. And kind of on a wild idea, iran, and in 1992, i won. I loved every minute of it. I love the backandforth of working on tough issues, chance to represent the things i care about, and here it is 25 years later and i am still there. I guess i have just learned that if you have a great opportunity to work on a career in your life like agriculture, and also be on the policymaking side, it is truly the best of both worlds. Portland is a wonderful city. Anytime you have relatively a formal city that has the great creative food scene, a lot of young people, but also the history we have, you just find creative people saying that his right want to live. I want to raise my family. We are a very safe states. We are a friendly state. We just have a real feel of authenticity. Real beautiful views, and they are history. Some cobblestone streets, old buildings, brick buildings. It makes you feel you were in new england in the 1700s. You are up against the history here, and that makes people feel like it is an unusual place to live, but the kind of place you want to stay. Is an visit to portland American History tv exclusive, and we showed it to you to introduce you to the cities tour. Cities, bringing Historic Sites to our viewers. You can watch more of our visits at www. Cspan. Org citiestour. Tonight, President Trump visiting vietnam as part of his asia trip. Then a discussion about u. S. Nations with cuba. And later part of todays washington journal. President trump is on a trip to east asia. One of the stops was danang, vietnam, where the president asiapacific economic conference. He spoke about a half an hour