Frenchtown was located roughly between Touchet and College Place where French-Canadians, often with their Indian wives, settled after working for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Nez Perce, later known as Fort Walla Walla, a trading post established in 1818 at Wallula. The Frenchtown settlement began about 1823, and by the time the Whitmans arrived in 1836, numbered more than a dozen cabins.

In December of 1855, following the Walla Walla Treaty Council in June, the four-day Battle of Frenchtown, also called the Battle of Walla Walla, took place in the area. The fighting resulted in the killing of Walla Walla Chief Peopeomoxmox and an end to Indian control of the Walla Walla Valley. In 1876, the St. Rose of Lima Mission and cemetery were established on a portion of the battlefield nearby.

The ensemble will feature several Frenchtown residents and Hudson's Bay Company employees.