A group of graves and a large crypt sealed, with a massive block of stone mark the burial place of the pioneer missionaries. A flight of steps and a winding road lead to the crest of the hill, where a tall shaft was erected.

In 1836 Marcus Whitman constructed a crude cabin of cottonwood logs on the right bank of the Walla Walla River, at Waiilatpu, near the mouth of Mill Creek. The larger buildings of the mission soon rose alongside. Myron F. Eells, a missionary from Massachusetts who visited the mission in 1838, described it thus: “It was built of adobe, mud dried in the form of bricks, only larger—there are doors and windows of the roughest material, the boards being sawed by hand and put together by no carpenter, but by one who knows nothing about the work. There are a number of wheat, corn and potato fields about the house, besides a garden of melons and all kinds of vegetables common to a garden. There are no fences, there being no timber with which to make them. The furniture is very primitive; the bedsteads are boards nailed to the sides of the house, sink fashion; then some blankets and husks make the bed.” The mission buildings and grounds were in process of restoration as an historic site, under the auspices of Whitman Centennial, Inc., a Walla Walla organization.