Packing 10,000 years of history into a 1,400-square foot room is an impractical, perhaps even impossible, task.

And Rick Castellano will be the first to tell you.

However, Castellano, executive director of the Island County Historical Society Museum, believes what will be unveiled to the public Saturday, Jan. 24, will be a good first step in telling the stories of the Native Americans that once lived along the beaches of Penn Cove for centuries.

“Native People — Native Places” is a permanent exhibit that will be showcased in the museum’s basement and is the product of a year’s worth of preparation and many years of careful planning by Castellano.

“It’s been a long haul,” Castellano said. “It will continue. It will never be done. It will be ever-evolving.”

The exhibit will feature a large collection of artifacts, pieces and photographs that represent the area’s earliest inhabitants and were long stored away in the basement.

Special focus will be placed on the Lower Skagit people, now of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and also the Snohomish, now part of the Tulalip Tribes.

The museum’s signature item is the 28-foot-long, restored Snakelum Family Canoe built in the 1850s that rests in front of a massive lit panoramic image of Penn Cove by Coupeville photographer Denis Hill.

Hill used photo-editing software to take out homes and buildings to depict a scene before white settlers arrived on Whidbey Island in the mid 19th century.

Castellano calls the scene the museum’s new “wow factor.”

A second, smaller Native American canoe also will be on display. It was built in the early 20th century by Alex Kettle, a skilled carver and Lower Skagit member.

Other features at the exhibit include a salmon wheel that was retired from the Penn Cove Water Festival and original festival memorabilia.

One Coupeville resident loaned a large wood carving of a local Native American legend, the Maiden of Deception Pass, which is encased in glass.

Another donated a chair made of driftwood to use for story-telling.

The “Native People —Native Places” exhibit will coincide with another traveling exhibit that also is opening Saturday at the Coupeville museum.

“Northwest Treaty Trail, 1854-1856” is an exhibit that will be on display upstairs from Jan. 24 to April 12. Its appearance in Coupeville is sponsored by local nonprofit Historic Whidbey.

The Island County Historical Society Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

General admission is $4; $3 for seniors, students and active military and dependents.

The museum is located near the Coupeville waterfront at 908 N.W. Alexander St.

For more information, go to www.islandhistory.org