National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
They walked for 2,000 miles...men, women, and children by the tens of thousands. The story of this journey comes alive today through the life-size exhibits and living history at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center near Baker City. This 23,000-square-foot facility tells the stories of the Oregon Trail immigrants. Oregon Trail ruts, interpretive trails, exhibits, special events and living history performances bring the Oregon Trail back to life. Operated by the Bureau of Land Management along with the nonprofit volunteer group Trail Tenders, Inc.
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4.6 (5 members)
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Photos from flickr™ in and around National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center (0.5 mile radius)
Trustiness: 65%
4.0 (3 members)
stand in the tracks of history
The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center outside of Baker Oregon is a very good interpretive facility. Inside it features a great hall with a life sized diorama framed by the Blue Mountains. But the most memorable element of this site is that visitors can walk from the Center to stand right on a section of the rutted Oregon Trail. Follow those tracks in your imagination to The Dalles (Gorge Discovery Center) and Oregon City (End of the Oregon Trail Center) and the stories of the true old west come to life
Keywords: Other place to discover, Historic, Authentic, Scenic location, Everyone, Summer (June - August), Close to the city, Fall (September - November), Spring (March - May)
Trustiness: 78%
Don't miss this!
This is an awesome museum, one of my favorites in the world. What makes is so cool is not necessarily the museum itself but its location. The building sits on top of a hill. Inside the museum one side has a huge floor-to-ceiling glass wall through which visitors can look out over the monumental landscape of the high desert. The view stretches to the horizon and you do not see any streets, houses or powerlines. Just the vegetation of the desert. But through this landscape run some tracks on the ground. These are the ruts of the wagons of the settlers that moved from the East Coast to Oregon over 150 years ago. There are very few spots that I know of which are so easy to access and yet give you a chance to look at nature that has not been touched by mankind in over 100 years. Visitors can also take a short hike (30-45 minutes) down from the museum to see the wagon tracks close-up. The museum itself is also nice, lots of hands-on things to play with and experience which especially children love. When you come to Eastern Oregon this is a must-see.
Keywords: US$ 5 - US$ 10, Historic Site, Outside the city, Difficult to reach, Interesting, All year, Historic, Museum (History), Everyone, Need a car
Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
This is an outstanding museum. Very clearly it shows and explains the hard and dangerous journey from Missouri to Oregon of the thousands of settlers in the 19th century. How they made their way, what they brought along, how they felt, how they interacted with the Native Americans, what they expected and what they finally found - here you can see, touch and feel how it was like on the Oregon trail. The museum ist situated on a hill in the high desert above the green valley of Baker City at exactly the spot where the settlers came long. Round the museum there are four miles of interpretive trails where you can follow the ruts of the settlers' waggons which are still clearly to be seen. Take your time - at least two hours.
Keywords: Everyone, Historic Site, Scenic, US$ 5 - US$ 10, Discount for senior citizens, All year, Need a car, Just you alone / As a single, With kids, As a senior citizen, Museum (History), Outside the city, Interesting, Exciting, Historic
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