Oregon City, Oregon was the end of the Oregon Trail. We had driven past this center (near Rt 213 and I205) several times coming and going from getting the AC unit, going to Trader Joes, etc. so we finally decided to make a day of it and go for a visit. We arrived, paid our $9 each admission, (not NPS so our Golden Age Passport would not work), and first off watched their 30 minute film titled “Bound for Oregon”-real stories about real people from diaries-great. Here is a link to their site.
We enjoyed looking and getting into their exhibits. The funny part was this dugout canoe was made for people narrower than me, so I wasn’t fitting too well! Yes, Bob had to help me out and yes, the room had no other visitors in it!
Below is a tree limb from Barrow Road (check out the link for more info about the Barrow Rd). Notice the indentations on the limb, the result of ropes cutting into the wood as emigrants lowered their wagons down the 60-70 degree angle of Laurel Hill.
Another unique item was this soap holder. Looks like a popcorn popper, only smaller. They would put this holder with the soap inside down in a kettle of very hot water and swish the basket around to dissolve off some of the soap to wash their clothes. You wouldn’t want to reach with your hand into a hot vat of water to retrieve the soap on the bottom, evidently the soap did not float like Ivory.
Our next stop which was included in our original admission was the Museum of the Oregon Territory. It wasn’t too large, but very interesting.
They had a nice display of the trade beads given to the native Americans.
Once I turned around to find Bob looking up under this display’s skirts! This display even encouraged touching, or that is what he said!
We were walking away from these desks, when I heard two about 8 year olds commenting about wasn’t it nice they had water bottle holders in these desks. I just couldn’t help myself but to let them know what they were used for, ink wells. Well to an 8 year old, what are ink wells, so that led into a lengthy discussion, Bob also added the part about dipping girl’s pigtails into the ink wells. Not sure they believed us, but it was fun.
We ended up going to a Trader Joe’s and Fry’s before heading back to the coach. At Fry’s we purchased a Battery Backup and Surge Protector for my CPU, this backup will even turn off my CPU if the power cuts off, which it can and does do in some of the parks we stay in.
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