Museum

The museum site is the old Chamberlain Auto Camp. The property is next door to the original house built by the Chamberlains, an early pioneer family, and founders of the Columbia Gorge Rock Club. The Corbett Country Market was also built by the same family as the house and auto camp. The museum will host and profile artifacts, documentation, and photos representing the “paths” our ancestors lived.

The Indigenous People’s Path chronicles of the lives of the earliest peoples of the area and will include the oral, pictographic and petroglyphic histories of indigenous peoples and tribal families. The Exploration Path contains the oral, written and pictographic journals of European, Asian, and North and South American explorers and traders. The Pioneer Families Path will present the oral, written, and photographic records of settlement by peoples from around the world in the 1800’s, 1900’s, and early 20th century.

Drawings, sketches, and paintings are also part of the historical records of all three paths. Within the Pathways will be further divisions illustrating the ways of life and industries of the area: fishing /canneries, hunting, trading, logging /lumbering, vegetable and nursery plant farming, and dairying.

The museum exhibits will include cultural and social aspects of each segment of our long history. The historical footprints of our shared past will be represented in the new facility.

Photo Description: Museum photo top right:  Showing concrete ramp installed, waiting for Railing. Photo of Museum sign installed in the Spring. The sign made of Local Cedar, donated by Diane Stief and Ed Hoke.  Pictured is Tony Jacobs, who designed and hand crafted the sign, which compliments the building, all NW materials. Sign is waiting for the rock base to be completed. Photo of side of museum, directly under the sign photo:  Iron wood decking ready for the railing system to be installed. Photo of 5 women:  Students of Pacific NW College of Art through Willamette University worked together with Sara Huston of MFA Applied Craft & Design and Kristin Rogers Brown, Associate Professor of Graphic Design for the Indigenous People’s Committee to plan and design posters and map images for display in the new museum.  Pictured left to right:  Han Bakken, Emma Schoeni, Ryan Kenney, Amarice Jenkins, Kristen Rogers Brown.

Photo Description: Lower Left photo:  Ramp with Railing installed.  Chuck Rollins, President checking out the progress. Middle bottom photo of rock wall: Columbia Gorge Rock Hounds Rock Wall sporting new cap of a White Cedar Log.  Pictured: L to R Richard Bornemouth, Chuck Rollins, Natalie Linn.

Photo Description: Top right photo:  Sheet rocking of the library and lower level of the museum. Lower left bottom photo:  Sheet rockers working in the office area of the Mezzanine. Below: main room and gift shop room. Bottom right photo:  Deck railing system installed on all three sides. With preservation in mind,  this unique railing system is fabricated from small gauge Rail Road track that was used on Larch Mountain from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.  The Rail Road track is coupled   with historical piping from the Roslyn Lake Hydraulic Plant to create this “one of a kind” railing system.