Welcome

This is a preview to a newer version of the Reardan History web site, still under construction. This version gets rid of the rigid hierarchical structure and relies on a search box to find things. This software is the same base software as Wikipedia. New things are added only to the new format. Eventually when all of the old stuff get converted to the new structure, the old structure will be abandoned. When that switch over is complete, anyone will be able to contribute to the history. Presently this is maintained in two places: on the web and on my laptop and the latter is the "official" version for now. (You can change the web, but I won't guarantee that I'll see or honor your changes.) Comments are welcome on Facebook or directly to me.

Welcome to the Reardan History wiki. Reardan is a small rural town in eastern Washington whose main industry is producing soft white winter wheat, some cattle and other crops like barley, mustard and canola. It has been around since the 1870 and had changed to fit the times and circumstances.

This is a place to collect and share stories and photos about Reardan. The main collection of historical photographs is from holdings at the Reardan Memorial Library, the Lincoln County Historical Society, and a collection of photographs of Dan Plaster, a local photographer, and other photographs found on the Internet.

Sharing

This website wants to encourage sharing of contributions. That means that you can post stories or photographs and you or others can use those stories and pictures as long as it is not commercial and they attribute where they got the material. You should not post copyrighted material without the written permission of the copyright holder. (Much of the current content violates this principle.)

Contributing

Contributing is simplified with an open wiki, which means anyone can contribute text and pictures without even logging in. You can easily correct simple typos and misspellings. You can add to and clarify existing stories. You can add your own stories. Adding pictures is a bit harder because it is a two step process: upload the picture from the menu on the left and then add a link to the photo in an article to give the image some context.

Contributions are tracked either by login name or by IP address for those who do not log in. This tracking allow the repair of vandalism or the blocking of offending individuals.

With this power goes that anyone can also edit what you post. Typographical errors can be corrected by using the edit button to enable editing and then the save button to save the changes. Alternate perspectives can be added to existing pages. New pages can be created for individual stories. These stories can be linked by other pages so that others can find the new posts. This all can get messy. At the top of each page is a discussion button which allows a side discussion about the article or an image without changing the main text or telling why text has been changed in a particular way. The View History button can be used to see the changes made to a page over time including who made the change and when.

Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.

Respect Your Neighbors

The main general rule is to respect your neighbors. This is not a place for current political discussions or to entertain gossip or for current advertising. Some stories may necessarily involve the discussion of past politics, but again, be as factual as possible and try not to promote an ideology. Make sure all images uploaded are G-rated so your kids and grandkids can use this site.

This website is run as a benevolent dictatorship; administrators have the final word about disagreements and may elect to block disruptive individuals from future contributing. This is not a democracy nor does it protect anyone's right to free speech. It is hoped and expected that we can all play nicely and build this site together.

How To Begin

You can search for a name or top with the search box at the top of this page. This will find the occurrence of a name or word on any page where it appears. You can try one of the major topics below, or you can pick a random page from the menu at the left [on desktop versions].

This site in under active development, so things are being added (which can be exciting) and moved (which can be annoying). Please have patience during this construction phase.

• Reardan History
• Reardan History Timeline
• Effect of WWII
  • Reardan WWII Veterans
  • Reardan WWII Casualties
• Reardan and the Cold War
• The People
  • Some South Reardan Homesteads
  • Pioneer Stories
• Reardan Schools
• Photographs
• Miscellaneous
• Recent Changes
• Needs
• Categories (like an index)

See Things To Do for work items in progress. See also Recent Changes to the wiki for the latest additions and modifications to the wiki.