VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Barnes County Historical Society Lecture Series Season 24 Presents: Wes Anderson (BCHS) “Wes’s Great Adventure, 9 days in England and France in June of 2024: A WWII Trip” 7 PM Thursday, September 19th at the Barnes County Museum. (315 Central Ave N. Valley City, ND)

American author Mark Twain published his bestselling book “Innocents Abroad” in 1869, humorously chronicling what Twain called his “Great Pleasure Excursion” taking the Grand Tour of Europe and the Holy Land.  This isn’t that…. exactly.  EF Tours scheduled a 9-day travel package to WWII-related sites in London and France that was offered through VCSU for June 2024.  Since his last true vacation was in the year 2000, Wes was encouraged by the board to go, and hopefully come back.  Sites visited included incredibly “haunted” blood-soaked, tragic places only read about or seen on television or in movies.  Museums and history a plenty, there was stuff to see and learn, and observe how they exhibited and interpreted their artifacts. First off the bus, last back on the bus, Wes was learning the entire time!  London, the Imperial War Museum, Winston Churchill’s War Room Bunker, Crossing the English Channel, the beaches of Normandy, Paris, and more.  This isn’t a formal presentation, no great histological scholarly preparations have been made, more Bilbo Baggins than Herodotus or Marco Polo.  He went, he saw, he came back.  This is his adventure in photos and recollections.

Wes Anderson has been the Barnes County Historical Society’s museum curator since July 1997.  He’s made numerous other presentations for the series over the last 25 years, this is one more to add to the list.  He also moonlights as the director of the VCSU Planetarium.

All Lectures are at the Barnes County Historical Society Museum and held in conjunction with Valley City State University.  They are free and open to the public. For more information contact Wes Anderson at 701-845-0966.