Thanks, Bob, for your detailed look at this formation.
An earlier use of this dance formation, and the earliest one I know, is the
Weston Mt. Zia, written by Daniel Clark ten years ago. Details are here:
http://fam.bmi.net/zia.htm
There were a series of posts discussing this dance back in January of 1999; a
search on rec.folk-dancing for "Walla Walla Wunder" will bring you to the list,
which included a discussion of possible English country dance antecedents of
this formation, and a similar dance that came to Nick Hawes in a dream.
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH