Tour of James Island at La Push, Washington

On the Quileute Indian Reservation

This is a three QTVR Panorama Tour of James Island on the Quileute Tribal Reservation, which includes the fishing village, La Push, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. These QTVR Panoramas were all shot and created by middle school students at Quileute Tribal School, which is visible in the first panorama. You can go from panorama to panorama by clicking on hot spots in the movies. Here is what you will see, beginning with the first.

  1. The panorama opens looking at James Island, with the Quillayute River in the foreground. Seventh graders Marcus and Dennis shot and created the panorama. Here is what they say about it:

    These pictures were taken on a point of land by our school. We set up a tripod with a digital camera aimed at James Island. We took 16 shots in a circle. The things that you will see in this panorama are: the jetty going to James Island, Mora Beach, the fish plant, senior's building, part of the new school building, Shoreline Resort, First Beach and the Quillayute River.

    Doing Virtual Reality shots is easy, but you have to be careful fo the differences in the sky. Sometimes a sunny spot will look too light if the rest of the sky is cloudy. If there are people or animals in the shots they have to stand still or they may end up with extra arms or legs when the pictures are stitched together by the computer.

  1. The second pano is from the top of James Island, looking down toward the point you just came from. If you turn the pano around, you can click on a hot spot that takes you to the south end of the Island.

  2. The third pano looks to the south. You can see the headlands that separate La Push from Second Beach. The rocky islands off shore are called sea stacks. These are known as the "Needles" or the "Devil's Bone Yard." Eighth graders David and Jarvis shot and created these last two panoramas. Here is what they say about them:

    One day we went to the toop of James Island with our class. The fisheries people took us to the island in boats. Chris Morganroth, our cultural resource person at the school, told us the history of James Island. When the Quileutes and the Makahs went to war, the Quileutes used to go to the top and cut some trees down. They sharpened the branches and rolled them down to kill the Makahs. The girls boiled hot water and spilled it over the edge of James Island to drive away the enemies.

    Mark Christal, from the University of Texas, helped us take 16 shots of the views from the top of the island. You will see the Pacific Ocean and all the things we see around our school. We used computer software (Nodester) to "stitch" the pictures into a circle. We had to line up the pictures a little, but the program does most of the work. When the weather gets good again we plan to go and take pictures of other areas of the Olympic National Park, which is right by our reservation.


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