I love museums. When we were driving up I-5, my boyfriend saw "museum" on a sign, and we immediately pulled over to check out.
This is obviously a small-town museum, so I pretty much knew the sort of thing I was walking into beforehand. It has character, but it could use a lot of work.
It's... ok. My main problem is the fact that there isn't a cohesive theme. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it focused on local / Oregon history. Unfortunately, it seems to mostly be a collection of "old things from wherever." There was a large section on just general war memorabilia, and there was even a random Greek urn?
There was an older house on the location that was pretty neat. Again, the rooms are just filled with things - some of them looked to be previously used in the house, but I think one of the rooms was just filled with old dolls. Personally, I would prefer if it had been staged a little more realistically / historically.
The museum also had an old schoolhouse and miner's cabin. Apparently the schoolhouse was "partially condemned" and you could only go in a certain distance to a half wall. They both had mannequin dioramas set up inside. Both buildings were relocated from their original locations, and both buildings felt like they were moderately unsafe to be inside.
There was also a barn out in the back with more antiques.
$6 per adult to check out the museum. We did show up a few minutes before closing time, and I did appreciate the fact that the person staffing the museum kept the doors open for us. We signed a guest book when we came in.
They could really improve this place by culling their items, improving the signage (most of it looked like it was created in Word and just printed on an inkjet), and just sprucing up their displays. read more