Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

If you’ve spent any significant amount of time traveling through small towns in Oregon, odds are you’ve wandered through your fair share of local history museums.

There’s one found in virtually every town around the state, from the Little Log Church in Yachats to Wallowology in Joseph. All offer fascinating glimpses into the history of the Pacific Northwest – whether geologic, tribal or modern – but the museum in Baker City stands out from the crowd.

Filling a 33,000-square-foot building that was built in 1920 as a community natatorium, the Baker Heritage Museum houses dozens of exhibits that go beyond old knick-knacks to show off a surprisingly vibrant history of both Baker City and eastern Oregon.



Wander into the main hall of the museum and you’ll find old carriages, recreated store fronts and a collection of barbed wire. That much is par for the course at local history museums in the American west. What sets the Baker Heritage Museum apart are exhibits you just can’t find anywhere else.

READ MORE: 20 reasons to love Baker City

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Downstairs, the museum holds two private collections of rocks and minerals, which collectively make one of the best rock collections in the country. And that’s not hyperbole. The Cavin-Warfel Collection (which is 18 tons in all) once fielded an offer from The Smithsonian worth $500,000, according to the Baker City museum. Now, anyone can see it with the $6 price of admission.

Illuminated shelves line the walls of the rock exhibit, showing off gorgeous agates, thunder eggs, picture jasper, and hundreds of colorful specimens found in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the world. A collection of such size and quality isn't unheard of in Oregon (we have the Rice Museum, after all), but it's rare to find one in this kind of setting.



Upstairs, the museum continues in rooms that line the natatorium balconies, from which you can imagine the old community pool below. Baker City was once known as the Queen City of the Inland Empire, originally built on the riches of nearby gold mines and dredges. Artifacts from that gold mining era are on display, but so are some more unexpected items.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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One upstairs exhibit focuses on Baker City's Chinese community, which in the late 1800s and early 1900s was home to hundreds of Chinese laborers. Prejudices against Oregon's Asian-American communities often centered around the accusation that families refused to assimilate to American culture, a false notion that the exhibit can firmly put to rest.



From Victorian-era dresses to furniture and everyday objects, the museum documents family life that looks like any other. The fact that the objects are not just included but highlighted in the local history museum sends a powerful message of the importance and impact those Oregonians had on the community.

It might be that Baker City has a particularly interesting local history, or that the Baker Heritage Museum just does a particularly good job documenting it. There’s also the fact that the gold mining town had money in its early days, which might mean there are just more physical artifacts on hand.

Whatever the case, the Baker Heritage Museum offers a colorful look into a fascinating Oregon town, going far deeper than any swimming pool could have gone.

The Baker Heritage Museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., located at 2480 Grove Street in Baker City. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for youth and seniors and free for kids younger than 12. Find more information at bakerheritagemuseum.com or call 541-523-9308.



--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB

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