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Before the dams arrived and flooded the old village Chuplitz, the fishing sites, and Whale Island, there was a main village at Priest Rapids inhabited into the 1950’s – within living memory and the last main village before the inundation . To commemorate that time and place in Wanapum history, a scale model was created, using blown up details in historic photographs, to show the topography of the site on the river, the outbuildings, the vehicles, the people and the activities that took place, and still to a great extent, take place today. In fascinating and almost unbelievable attention to detail each activity prompts the visitor to make a story out of that particular vignette. Monoculars allow visitors to focus to such a degree as to see facial features. Accompanying interactives show close-ups as well as the historic photos used in developing the model, which took over two years to construct by a single individual. Carol Christianson devoted part of her life to this significant accomplishment, and it is easily on a par with any such model world-wide. Not only did she build the whole model from ground up, but she devised a lighting concept that would be true to actual real-life conditions, with the addition of a directional “sun”. Burt Storey expertly photographed the detail shots that are used in the interactives fronting the showcase. 3DS developed and engineered the specially built positive-pressured showcase. Consultation with Royal BC Museum alumni Master Craftsman Robert Byers assisted them to keep the enemy, dust, at bay.