May 30, 2003
Contact: Annie Johnson (509-933-1416/fax 509-963-2301/e-mail: johnsann@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Central Washington University alumnus
Dr. Michael McKenzie has been awarded the 2002 John McClelland Award,
given annually to the author of the article judged the best in
“Columbia,” the Washington State Historical Society’s journal.
McKenzie’s article, “Lessons from an Old Road: Frederick
Dent’s Route from Fort Dalles to Fort Simone,” details the importance
of the Old Military Road, carved out by Frederick Dent, Ulysses Grant’s
brother-in-law, in the late 1850s. It was published in the magazine’s
fall 2002 issue.
“I was extremely surprised at this award, since my major
fields are religion and philosophy, not Pacific Northwest history,”
McKenzie says. “I think that one of the reasons that people seem to
connect to this article is the fact that I wrote it in a ‘you are
there’ style and the topic concerns one of the most important early
roads into central Washington. “I also chronicled my own experiences
in locating and hiking along the old road route, documenting that in
several places, the old wagon ruts are still visible today, nearly 150
years after the road was built.”
McKenzie graduated from CWU in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree
in law and justice. He earned master’s degrees from Simon Greenleaf
School of Law and Westminster Theological Seminary, along with master’s
and doctoral degrees from the University of Southern California. He is
now a professor of philosophy and religion at Keuka College in Keuka
Park, N.Y.
McKenzie has also authored works on the religious climate of
the 1800’s Columbia Plateau and is now writing a fourth book on the
influence that James Wilbur, a 19th century Methodist missionary from
New York, had on the settlement of the Pacific Northwest.
He will receive the McClelland Award during a June 7
presentation in Tacoma.
