Kept in museum storage since 1989, this beautiful quilt held the key to unravelling the forgotten story of Ziller Smith, a Black woman who moved to Oregon around 1900. Until the quilt’s rediscovery in 2024, Ziller’s life had been omitted from the historical record.
Join us on September 18th at 5:30 PM at the North Lincoln County Historical Museum for a talk by Executive Director Christopher Melton. He will share the steps he took to trace the history of the quilt, uncover evidence of its maker, and imagine what Ziller’s life might have been like in early 20th-century Oregon.
The quilt will be on view in the Anne Hall Gallery on the museum’s second floor from September 18th 2025, through March 2026. This exhibit will interpret details in the quilt, outline what we’ve been able to prove about Ziller’s journey from Missouri to Lostine, OR. The exhibit will provide concrete evidence of her life, while also exploring the question: What can we learn from an artifact when documentation is impossible to find?
We are excited to be hosting our final James L. Watson Glass Fishing Float Fundraiser. We will have a wide variety of floats for sale, ranging in price from $5 to over $5,000. Any additional floats that are not sold during the event will be made available for sale via our gift shop.
Before the fundraiser begins, the viewing room will be open to the public. From 11AM – 1PM June 6th folks will be allowed into the room for Meet & Greet with other collectors, and to view the Watson floats.
THE FUNDRAISER BEGINS AT 1PM on June 6th.
After the viewing those interested in purchasing will draw a lottery ticket – visitors will be let into the room to purchase in small groups. Each person will be allowed to purchase 1 item.
June 7th will start with a lottery, from 11AM – 2PM, with the same 1 item limit. After 2PM on June 7th all remaining floats will be available for purchase, without limit.
Event Schedule:
June 6th 11AM – 1PM: Meet & Greet with appraisers and float experts and view the floats for sale. 1PM – 4PM: Lottery drawing and sale begins! Purchase Limit: 1 Float per Person
June 7th 11AM – 2 PM: Lottery drawing and entry – Purchase Limit: 1 Float per Person 2PM – 4PM: Lottery ends, limit is lifted, and any remaining floats will be available to all!
Rose Lodge, Taft, Oceanlake, Cutler City – when you learn the stories about how these towns came to be, the Post Office plays a central role. In the early 1900s, there were only two methods of communicating long distance: by telegraph and the U.S. Postal Service. When our rural townsites had enough residents, they would petition their congressperson to establish a postal route in their community. Once approved, they would open a post office. It took more time for home delivery to reach rural residents of North Lincoln County, making the post office an important community hub. People would make their daily trek to check their mail, and catch up with their neighbors, which fostered a strong sense of community identity.
First post office in Oceanlake, L to R Arthur Deuel, H. E. Warren, & E. M. Feynolds, c. 1927
Our next rotating exhibit in our main hall will walk us through the history of the U.S. Postal Service in North Lincoln County. We’ll look at the lives of rural mail carriers like Archie Stephens, who traversed mud, sand, forests, and rivers, usually in the rain, to keep residents connected with family and friends from near and far. The exhibit will contain some of the letters that people wrote, showing examples of how people communicated before text messages and phones. We will explore how towns from Depoe Bay up to Otis and Rose Lodge got their post office, and sometimes their name.
As part of the exhibit we will be partnering with Oregon Humanities Dear Stranger program. “Dear Stranger is a recurring letter-exchange project that connects Oregonians through the mail to share experiences, beliefs, and ideas.” All while supporting the USPS! There will be prompts, letter writing supplies, and a drop box available throughout the year. Learn more HERE.
Come to the opening reception and Letter Night on April 3rd, from 5:00PM – 7PM. Bring a letter to share, or read one from NLCHM’s collection.
