Independence is a fun little city with a college-town feel. Western Oregon University is nearby so…read morethere are always college students around. Central High School is also located here. One of the funnest things about Independence is the 4th if July celebration! The day starts out with a fun run and a big parade, then people meander down to the riverfront to enjoy the music, food and booths. Then, when it's dark, they have a fantastic fireworks display!

Today is the biggest day of the year for the city of Independence. Of course the name should give…read morethat away. We come here almost every year for the parade and all the festivities. The parade is always fun. They have a small, I think 5k run at the beginning of the parade. Some times they have a fly over by the military. The rest of the day, they have rides, booths and lots of food down by the river front. At night, they have one of the biggest firework shows. If you haven't been, you should come and check it out. It's great fun. Our family loves it.

I had fun at evergreen water park and it is huge! i went there on my10th birthday and had a lot of…read morefun running around

This place is out in the middle of nowhere but a cool place to visit. I got to see the spruce goose…read morewhich I had no idea was moved from Long Beach. The space museum is cool as well. They have a mock control center for launching a rocket with vibrations. There's also a water park with a 747 on top the building with 4 water slides coming out of it. That looked fun. They are building a hotel on the property as well. It's a pretty neat spot in the middle of nowhere. Check out Mark Clay McGowan on YouTube for history and information details of museum.

What a unique experience it was to have a tour from the daughter of the man who constructed this…read moremuseum. It's truly amazing to think of how much love and hard work went into it. If you plan on going, give yourself a large chunk of time to just be there. There's lots to see and if you blink you just might miss something. I will be recommending this museum to other local visitors. So glad that I stopped! Hope to be back Even if you're not a rock hound I think you will still be impressed.

I was blown away. This is a must-see. I agree w/ many of the other five-star reviewers. I got to…read moremeet w/ the husband (his wife dealt w/ the next couple after us). He has obvious memory issues. I fear this won't be open for very much longer, so please see it ASAP if you can. VERY MUCH WORTH SEEING -- it is a reflection of a time gone by -- government would NEVER permit the sort of housing seen here. Astonishing to think what artistic works his father accomplished -- nowadays we can boast about Skyrim/Stardew Valley houses whereas he actually BUILT a house, painted numerous paintings, made the incredible stone Biblical "paintings" and all the other artistic endeavors.

GETTING HERE:…read more (Traveling); located on the corner of 1st Street and Washington. It's right near Bryant Park and the Willamette River in Albany, OR. MOOD: Ready for some fun and laughter! I mean, it's a carousel! The next best thing to Disneyland. REVIEW: This is so cool! Bummed that we got there just a few moments before closing so I couldn't play tourist and shop the gift shop. :) But, we got to ride twice on the Carousel and it was fun! There's a ring toss/game of sorts but I wasn't able to figure it out. The Carousel is gorgeous! So pretty and while we were short on time and couldn't ask questions, I was able to infer that people sponsor(ed) the horses (for upkeep?) as there were gold plaques about a few of the horses. What a great opportunity to support historic Albany! Recommended! 10 stars and a must-do if in the Albany area of Oregon.

I've always loved carousel horses. I wanted a full size one for my dream living room when I was…read moreyoung. I did collected small carousel horse ornaments for my Christmas trees. So, when I realized Albany had a carousel with a museum I had to go. The place is amazing and more than horses. There is no entrance fee. I checked out the painting studio, then the carousel, with its snack bar. I saw all those animals featured on their website go round & round and up & down in three dimensional real life. I took lot of pictures and video. I joined a tour led by a volunteer. Learning about the local lady that started it all. Saw more carousel animals in basement along with the carving shop while three artists worked on future animals to be. I purchased a token to ride the carousel ($2) and nearly walked around the whole menagerie before deciding on an animal to sit upon. After debating salmon, elephant, orca, bear, zebra etc; I wound up on a horse named Calapooia. I didn't notice any xmas ornaments in the gift but I did buy a tee-shirt of Guardian the Hippocampus and a post card of Calapooia. They had post cards for all the animals on the carousel. I also got to press a penny while I still could. I had a great time. I was a kid again, all the people were happy. It was like visiting a small Disneyland. And for those happiest smiles I gladly left a donation for their future endeavors.

The gentleman who minds the grounds was kind enough to let us in to the museum building. It's…read morealways been closed when we've visited the Powerland/trolley museum. Pretty amazing array of vehicles. He showed us around and was a wealth of information about many of the vehicles on display. Got some great pictures! Very much appreciate the kindness and hospitality shown to us.

This place has an AWESOME collection of unique trucks housed here!read more

This was a pleasant surprise. Our neighbor told us about this spot as we were preparing for our…read moretrip, and I'm so glad he did. They had cockpits that my grandkids could get into and feel like they were learning how to be a pilot, full-blown planes, and the biggest hanger I've ever been in in my life. If you're in the area and you're in the military history, you will find this a very pleasant spot to stop and enjoy.

Loved this museum, so glad we came. The historic hangar is just so immense from the inside and…read moreoutside. All the exhibits are really great; such as the model WW2 scenes, you could see that had been someone's pet project and they had put a lot of time into it; the women of the Holocaust was haunting; the antique tractors and plane engines. Probably one of great best things were all the cockpits you could sit in and play with the knobs and dials. I've been to a lot of air museums, and never had the opportunity like this before. They had a good selection of planes inside and outside the hangar, although the tomcat was being painted so couldn't go near it. I see on the website that the hangar has sustained damage in a storm and they're asking for donations...please help them preserve some of this important history!

This is a cute little small town museum. Admission is free, but there are a couple of donation…read moreboxes in the building if you so desire to contribute. We were given an exhibit guide that gave some information about artifacts in display cases that were numbered. Not sure why they went the route of an exhibit guide rather than posting the relevant information next to each item. The displays, on the most part, were well curated, and the history blurbs were interesting. The upstairs had a nice little kids exploration area.

Americana galore!…read more We only had a about ten minutes to browse because we had to be somewhere else (not so good with our time planning...) but we could have easily stayed there for at least a half hour. If you're into the last century's pop history, this is a great place to see some bygone ephemera. We had free admission, thanks to a grant that the organization received. And this place is run by volunteers. So super duper impressed!