Keep Us Afloat

No, this boat is not on Siletz Bay, it is in the accession work-area of the museum.

In mid-November the museum took on water. It came through both our front and back doors and seeped in through the sides of the older portion of our building. Thankfully our artifacts were not damaged because they are stored off of the floor. Our insurance claim was denied, citing that coverage only includes flooding caused by broken interior pipes, not due to rainwater flooding.

We called an emergency cleanup company, and they went to work drying the building. We then began working toward preventative mitigation, which included clearing drains, repairing gutters, leveling our garden, and rocking all areas that have the potential for flooding.

We still have a lot of work to do, and we are calling on the museum community for help. We are setting a goal of 20,000 dollars in donations to help offset the cost of repairing/replacing damaged carpet/drywall, servicing our elevator (which also took on water), and continuing to contract preventative measures. See images below photos of the flooding and our progress. We will update this page often.

This will be a long road to recovery for the museum, but with your help, we can set sail as soon as possible. If you feel the call to donate, click the donate button below or send a check to the address below. Please denote that the check is for the “Keep Us Afloat” fundraiser, so we can send a proper thank you letter and recognize donors in our newsletter.

* Update 1/21/2022: We now have our new flooring in our gift shop (scroll down to see photos). This is the final step in our recovery from the flooding and now have a reopen date of Wednesday, February 16th.

* Update 1/04/2022: We have a date for the installation of our new flooring! Abbey Flooring in Newport is coming to place vinyl flooring in our giftshop in January 13th. Some contractors that we called were 6-8 months out, so we are thankful that we can get this done sooner rather than later. Our tentative reopen date is set for Wednesday, February 2nd. Thank you for all of the generous donations – we couldn’t have done this without you!

* Update 12/10/2021: So far, we’ve redone our side alleyway and our garden area so they will drain properly and will be more flood tolerant. The work was done by Seas the Day, and they did a great job. After the initial drying by Service Master, we had Disaster Master remove the carpet in our giftshop and professionally clean the rest of the areas that were soaked. We had some good news – the air movers and dehumidifiers did the trick on the drywall, so it will not have to be replaced. The next step will be to get vinyl flooring placed in our giftshop. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, we really appreciate you! Scroll down for photos of the work so far.



North Lincoln County Historical Museum

4907 SW HWY 101

Lincoln City, Oregon 97367

Standing water in the museum.
Flooding leading up to our artifact store rooms.
Progress in our giftshop.
Before and after shots of our drain in our alleyway. Work by Seas the Day.
Garden before and after to create a water-tolerant area, prepared for the next heavy rain. Work by Seas the Day.
Carpet removal by Disaster Master.
Carpet Cleaning by Disaster Master.
New flooring in our gift shop. Work done by Abbey Floor and More.