ODESSA, WA, MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT VOLGA & BLACK SEA GERMANS, AND A TRAILER FOR SALE...
 
I made a campaign stop in the town of Odessa, Washington which is famous for its DEUTSCHESFEST every September (and yes... it's on my calendar). While beer and sausages should be enough there is still more to this town.
 
As you can see by the Case tractors and harvesters and other equipment - this is an Ag community and wheat is king.
 
While it gets its name from Odessa, Ukraine - the people I've met are all Volga Germans (Wolgadeutsche in German).
Catherine the Great was German and invited Germans to come farm and my mother's family were along a more concentrated population of Germans along the Volga River in Russia. But the town is named for the more scattered German communities that dotted the Black Sea who became known, unsurprisingly, as the Black Sea Germans. Hence Odessa.
 
There were also Balkan Germans and Caucus Germans and many others but most returned to Germany or immigrated to America after 100 years when the Russians and later Soviets decided to start drafting them into the Army, taxing them, and otherwise chasing them out.
 
While this has nothing to do with the town of Odessa - many remaining Germans in the USSR were considered a possible threat during WWII and were moved east to Kazakhstan and even as far as Kyrgyzstan where there is still a Mennonite Church and four German-speaking families left in a remote village. Also in the "for what it's worth" trivia - these Germans spoke a rather antiquated German and while they could still communicate there was a rather Scarlet Letter kind of feel to their language when they encountered "modern" Germans.
 
There is a book on the shelf of our Weber family history at my mother's. Mom tells me that while her grandmother was born in Kansas - my great-grandmother grew up speaking German and had a German accent all her life.
 
There's a great old church I found but couldn't find out much about it on short notice so I'll see what else I can learn when I come back.
 
By the way - if you're looking for a travel trailer, this one is for sale in Odessa. Call Kat at (360)461-8130. She'll consider a trade and cash...