On Friday May 12th, the NLCHM board and volunteers bid farewell to Jeff Syrop, and welcomed the new Executive Director, Christopher Melton. To read more about the changes happening at NLCHM click HERE for our newsletter!
Jeffrey Syrop (executive director 2018-2023), Cynthia Farlow (board president), & Christopher Melton (executive director 2023-onward), pictured in the Feathered Friends exhibit, NLCHM, May 12, 2023
Our new exhibit, Feathered Friends, showcases NLCHM’s taxidermied bird collection. All of the birds in this exhibit can be found in the Pacific Northwest and were donated to the museum over the past 30 years. You’ll find informational panels on our Western Gull, juvenile Bald Eagle, Red-Tailed Hawk, Great Blue Heron, Red Phalarope, Western Grebe, Barn Owl, and our centerpiece, a Laysan Albatross. Our Laysan Albatross was found alive at the D River Wayside by museum Board Members in 1995. It was transferred to the care of a professional wildlife rehabilitator where it died. The museum got the proper permits to hand it over to a local taxidermist and it has been on display at the museum ever since. See these birds before they soar back to their permanent hiding places throughout the museum.
Coupled with this exhibit opening will be a presentation called Oregon’s Nearshore Habitat Protections, by Dawn Villaescusa, President of the Audubon Society of Lincoln City. Oregon’s nearshore habitats are integral to the unique landscape and seascape of the Oregon coast. These biologically rich and visually dramatic locations have high value to Oregonians as places to enjoy, learn, and use. The living resources found in our nearshore habitats include a productive mix of fish, invertebrates, and plant life, particularly in the intertidal areas, as well as seabirds and pinnipeds that use adjacent cliffs and offshore rocks for shelter, feeding, and raising young. Oregon’s Nearshore ecoregion offers opportunities for boating, surfing, wildlife viewing, fishing, crabbing, clamming, and recreational pursuits. It supports commercial fish harvests, shipping, and ecosystem services that benefit all Oregonians. Oregon has a long history of protecting these unique habitats.
The exhibit opening and presentation will take place at the North Lincoln County Historical Museum in Lincoln City on Saturday, April 15th at 1pm. This temporary exhibit will be up for about 6 months in our upstairs Anne Hall Gallery, so see it while you can.
Sears, Roebuck & Company and Montgomery Ward made rural living in North Lincoln County a lot easier around the turn of the 20th century. Having poor access to stores in the valley and being fairly isolated from other coastal communities, we relied on catalog ordering and the brave supply boat captains that would cross the Siletz River bar.
In this exhibit you will find artifacts from the museum’s collection that closely match entries from Sears, Roebuck & Company catalogs from the late 1800s to the 1930s. You will also find quotes from North Lincoln County residents via oral histories and diary accounts on ordering from Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. Swipe through our iPad kiosk station’s slideshow to view selected pages from a 1902 Sears, Roebuck & Company catalog.
During Lincoln City’s Antique Week (February 11th-20th), the exhibit will feature a QR code that will link visitors to a Sears Years trivia challenge. The winner of this challenge will receive a gift basket which will include a historic reprint of an 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog, along with several issues of our Pioneer History of North Lincoln County series, and more!
This fun exhibit will be up for all of 2023.
Taft Fire Station being built in 1941
NLCHM today, located in Taft's old Fire Station
