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This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite museums, the High Desert Museum near Bend. As I stopped and read a plaque in the birds of prey exhibit about the founder of the museum, Donald M. Kerr, I had a moment of realization about the importance of natural history museums. The fact that they are important has never been lost on me, neither has their intrigue, wealth of knowledge, or fun. I was noticing new things in the museum on this day that I had not picked up on during my childhood visits; orange flagging tape and beer bottles by a display of buzzards with roadside carrion, a giant discarded shotgun shell incorporated in the giant plaster beaver lodge in the children's play area, and then this plaque about Donald Kerr which I had been too young to notice before. The juxtaposition of modern human presence interacting with nature and the interaction between past and present jumped out at me. The plaque read, "Out of the belief that we can make well-informed decisions if we understand all the sides of an issue, he envisioned a new kind of museum that would show the close connection between people and their environment." The connection between people and their environment. In this context, a visit to a museum becomes much more than something fun to see or a way to pass the afternoon. It gives us some real food for thought. How are we connected to our environment and how does it affect us? How do we affect it? Our surroundings are not static, they are ever changing and made up of the history, present, and future possibilities, as are we. In all these ways, a trip to a local museum can offer us a rich and vast education.
My love of natural history museums goes back to childhood and our trips to the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. I loved walking through the cedar plank longhouse in the first peoples exhibit, and the old town with a Chinese market that smelled of herbs and spices. Sometimes I walked back through over and over again just to keep the experience going and feel like I had really stepped back in time. Living in the same place until I went away to College, I really took for granted how large a role my knowledge of local history played in my sense of place. I grew up knowing what place names meant and stories behind them, like the name of a creek or a mountain. I knew the history behind the places I frequented. Home was made up of all these things.
It takes time to feel at home in a new place, and when you don't have any history of your own there, learning about the local natural and cultural history is a great beginning. I started with hikes around the Masonic Pioneer Cemetery in my neighborhood when I first moved to Eugene. Many of the family plots have interpretive signs placed there with information about the first settlers in the area, from which I recognized street names and landmark names right away, and the plaques for identifying the native plants were extremely helpful as well. Little by little, I explored my neighborhood and began feeling more at home there. Then as I hiked, camped, visited museums, and read about the local history, the greater area became familiar and more of a home than a new, strange place.
Here I would like to share a handful of local favorites.
My love of natural history museums goes back to childhood and our trips to the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. I loved walking through the cedar plank longhouse in the first peoples exhibit, and the old town with a Chinese market that smelled of herbs and spices. Sometimes I walked back through over and over again just to keep the experience going and feel like I had really stepped back in time. Living in the same place until I went away to College, I really took for granted how large a role my knowledge of local history played in my sense of place. I grew up knowing what place names meant and stories behind them, like the name of a creek or a mountain. I knew the history behind the places I frequented. Home was made up of all these things.
It takes time to feel at home in a new place, and when you don't have any history of your own there, learning about the local natural and cultural history is a great beginning. I started with hikes around the Masonic Pioneer Cemetery in my neighborhood when I first moved to Eugene. Many of the family plots have interpretive signs placed there with information about the first settlers in the area, from which I recognized street names and landmark names right away, and the plaques for identifying the native plants were extremely helpful as well. Little by little, I explored my neighborhood and began feeling more at home there. Then as I hiked, camped, visited museums, and read about the local history, the greater area became familiar and more of a home than a new, strange place.
Here I would like to share a handful of local favorites.
The High Desert Museum
Tucked among the pines and quaking aspens with little streams full of trout and waterfalls flowing all around is the High Desert Museum. With nearly equal amounts of indoor and outdoor displays, made up of living components and life size models, one could easily spend all day. Rescued and rehabilitated river otter, eagles, bobcats, owls and porcupines can be observed up close and interactive opportunities abound with a pioneer homestead with period actors and demonstrations. This log cabin in the pines is complete with a root cellar, barn and stables, pioneer garden, chicken coop, and old sawmill. Seeing how simply people have lived and how much they did for themselves can spark a thousand possibilities for how we could live and thoughts on what we need to live. I always experience homestead envy when I visit here. I would be content to just move right in!
Check out the woven willow fence. It makes the thought of spending hundreds of dollars on fence boards at the lumber store a little hard to swallow, doesn't it. Plus, I think this is actually art.
While the outdoor exhibits are amazing, the indoor exhibits are equally spectacular. The Desertarium holds an array of nocturnal animals, lizards, and insects. The Spirit of the West exhibit is a walk through the past with a Northern Paiute rock shelter, covered wagon scene, mine operation, and 1885 settlement town all life size and realistic. The current Sin in the Sagebrush, while racy and more adult-geared, feels like you've stepped into a saloon, gambling house, and brothel. There was an "gambler" teaching card tricks in a tent while I was there, and it sounds like more actors add an interactive dimension to this exhibit throughout the day. The Native American exhibit, Made by Hand Through Memory, offers another life size walk through, and a blending of the modern with the past. I always linger awhile at the traditional huckleberry baskets and wish that I had them to use instead of buckets. Another crafting skill I hope to one day learn...
To visit the High Desert Museum online, go to: http://www.highdesertmuseum.org/
The University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Right here at the University of Oregon campus, is one of my very favorite Eugene museums. The Museum of Natural and Cultural History offers abundant opportunities to learn about local history and current archaeological findings. Because of it's connection to the University, a wealth of collections materials are available along with current research findings, lending variety and up-to-date change to the exhibits. The feature gallery exhibit, Oregon Where Past is Present, displays the four regions of Oregon and the homes and lives of their indigenous inhabitants. There is an interactive children's activity room, a travelling exhibit hall, a photography display hall, and the new expanded exhibit hall. The museum hosts a variety of fun activities, including a Winter Solstice celebration with storytelling, crafts and music. The museum gift shop, Past and Presents, is amazing in it's own right. Run by Terry Church, also a local Saturday Market vendor, one can find many of the local market artists nature-inspired work displayed here year round, along with a great selection of books and a children's area.
To visit this museum's website, go to: http://www.uoregon.edu/~mnh/
Alvord Farm and Museum
Alvord Farm and Museum near the West Eugene Wetlands is another place rich with opportunities to discover and connect to local history. On a 25-acre homestead and farm owned by John and Willa Alvord, the museum is housed in a rustic three-room barn packed with natural history specimens. Museum Coordinator, Karen Rainsong, offers school tours, after school enrichment programs, Saturday playshops, school day out programs, and summer camps. Here, one can learn about bugs, geology, birds, reptiles, pioneer life, Kalapuya skills and foods, pond life, farm animals, and slugs in a fun group setting.
I have enjoyed volunteering at the museum and bringing my children along on many occasions. The Glorious Gastropods playshop with a visit from the Eugene Slug Queen (a huge celebrity in our household) and a slug scientist was very memorable. Last summer I helped Karen lead a Little House on the Prairie Pioneer camp, with jam making, butter churning, wool felting, pioneer schoolhouse play, and a hoe-down with fiddle music at the end. We are excited to offer the week-long camp three times this summer!
Visit Alvord Farm and Museum's website beautifully done by Rainsong Designs at http://www.alvordmuseum.org/ to find out more about upcoming programs and activities.
The Umpqua Discovery Center
On the waterfront in Reedsport lies a hidden gem. The Umpqua Discovery Center is an amazing place to experience. Here, the interactive exhibits illustrate "how land, water, and people have shaped each other over time." The mural art by Peggy O'Neal adds a realistic and breathtaking beauty to the exhibits. Tidewaters and Time takes you through human settlements in the area from a Native American village to an early waterfront town and docks. Through sound recordings, and life size building fronts, it really feels like you've stepped into the past. The natural history exhibit, Pathways to Discovery - Exploring Tidewater County, is phenomenal. You travel on a walkway as a "hiker" through 16 interpretive zones with wildlife scenes and information, a weather room, a theater with short films in a "cave", and a bear cave slide for children to go down (over and over again!) Here you can learn about animal sounds, bird calls, tracks and scat identification, and the local plants. I don't think I could ever do it justice in my description. You'll just need to go there and see for yourselves.
To visit the museum website, go to: http://umpquadiscoverycenter.com/
Other Local Lane County Museums and History Sites I Recommend Visiting:
West Eugene Wetlands: http://wewetlands.org/
Lane County Historical Society and Museum: http://www.lanecountyhistoricalsociety.org/
Lane County Historical Society and Museum: http://www.lanecountyhistoricalsociety.org/
Eugene Masonic Cemetery: http://www.eugenemasoniccemetery.org/
Dorris Ranch: http://www.willamalane.org/pages/parks/dorris.shtml
Shelton McMurphey Johnson House: http://www.smjhouse.org/
Siuslaw Pioneer Museum: http://florencechamber.com/business-directory/siuslaw-pioneer-museum.shtml
Applegate Pioneer Museum, Veneta
Bohemia Gold Mining Museum, Cottage Grove
Cottage Grove Museum
Other Northwest Museums I Recommend Visiting:
The Royal BC Museum: http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/
The Makah Cultural and Research Center: http://www.makah.com/mcrchome.html
The Museum at Warm Springs: http://www.museumatwarmsprings.org/
Fort Vancouver: http://www.nps.gov/fova/index.htm
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