June, 2021
In downtown Astoria, well ok just up the hill about a block or two from downtown proper, is a wonderful old building that was built in 1904 and served for many years as Astoria’s City Hall and public library. Today, this building is the Heritage Museum.
It’s plumb full of history of this area. I spent a few hours here and came away with a great number of photos and with what felt like an even larger wealth of learning about all sorts of things about this area and the people who used to live here in relatively recent years and in the years of long ago. I’m going to limit my photos in this blog post to the things I saw and learned about native tribes and the people who have lived here for thousands of years. Much (most?) of their history has been lost. But still, even with what’s left, there is so much that’s new to me. I have found that when I learn about other people I learn about myself.
I’m going to use photos of the signs in the exhibit to describe the items, so there won’t be much text in this blog post. Some of the signs look out of focus, but the lighting was not good everywhere and sometimes reflected twice off the glass, so it was impossible to get a clear photo of some of the signs. Read everything if you wish, or just enjoy the photos. There will be a fun guessing game (based on knowledge!) at the end. Ok, let’s go inside this exhibit ….
The photo above shows a type of spear used to catch fish, usually sturgeon, that were on or near the bottom of a river or lake.
See this website for more information about Dentalium shells and where they come from.
Above … a traditional Makah hat made of plaited cedar bark. Other tribes traded salmon for hats like this one that were used as rain hats. Notice the two images of a red person in a boat holding a long spear and chasing a whale.
Sign below … Charles Cultee, ca. 1830-1897.
And now … here’s that little test quiz that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post. At the end of this exhibit in the Heritage Museum were two shelves (below) with six pelts attached. The sign on the wall above the pelts gave us the names of six animals and we were to decide which pelt belonged to which animal. Do you know which is which? Here are the six animals:
Mink … Black bear … Otter … Beaver … Ermine … Red Fox. (the answers are below, no peeking)
Of course, there in the museum, I could touch the pelts. On the other hand, since I have never touched a Black Bear or a Beaver or a Mink, or any of the others, that didn’t help me much. In the end, I got four correct, and mixed up just two of them.
Ok … here are the answers to the quiz about which pelt belongs to which animal … in order, left to right. First photo: otter, ermine, red fox. Second photo: mink, beaver, black bear. How’d you do?
There were many other exhibits in this museum. One of the more interesting ones to me was the Vice & Virtue exhibit. Click that link and take a look at that webpage, then take a look at that bar and tell me it doesn’t make you feel like you want to belly up to the bar and order a good stiff sarsaparilla. Cheers!