EXHIBITS
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| ^ State Treasurer Bob Straub (& Beaches Forever, Inc.) holds a Measure 6 rally at Cannon Beach in 1968. |
February 14, 2009 to December 31, 2009
Politics of Sand-Exhibition
"Politics of Sand" is the title of the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum's official sesquicentennial project.
Tom Olsen, JR., a documentary video producer, began the project in November of 2005. It chronicles the 100+ year battle to keep Oregon's beaches public. "Politics of Sand" includes a museum exhibit, a documentary video, and an oral history component. The museum exhibits will open on February 14, 2009. It will showcase various artifacts associated with the "Oregon Beach Bill" (1967) and Bob Straub's "Measure 6" campaign (1968). The display will be up through December 2009.
A two-hour documentary video with the same name will have its premiere at the NW Film & Video Festival in November 2008. There will also be a free public screening of the video at the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum on February 21, 2009. The DVD will be for sale at both the History Center and the Oregon Historical Society beginning in February. Mr. Olsen also acquired a grant through the Oregon Council for the Humanities which will allow for an oral history component to the project. Each of the 25 individual interviews, including over 14 hours of unedited, raw material, will be transcribed and created into DVDs. They will be available for public research at the Oregon Historical Society, the Oregon State Archives, and the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum beginning in 2009.
More information may be obtained through the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum at 503-436-9301 and by visiting www.cbhistory.org; or reach Tom Olsen, JR, at 503-258-7773.
Native American Longhouse
The "Native American Longhouse," a permanent installation at the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum, is a hands-on exhibit appealing to visitors of all ages. Children are invited to touch the cedar-bark cape, bowls, and skins furnishing the exhibit, and to use the space to "pretend." The design and implementation of the exhibit were carried out in cooperation with the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes, and the longhouse is furnished with replica artifacts crafted by Native American artisans around the northwest, including some from the Clatsop-Nehalem tribe.
When European people first arrived on the Oregon coast, villages dotted the coastline, providing a home to Native American communities at the mouth of almost every stream and river. Such villages were found in Cannon Beach, as well as neighboring communities to the north and south. These villages consisted of several longhouses, built in clearings between forest and tidewater. Each longhouse had multiple functions, serving alternately as home, workshop, and ceremonial space. Each housed an entire extended family, with 20 or more people sometimes living in a single home. As well as providing living space, longhouses were often the site of large social gatherings, such as feasts, ritual healing events, or the elaborate "potlatch" ceremonies, where the host gave away much of his wealth to mark births, marriages, deaths, and other major life events.
The Cannon Beach History Center's longhouse exhibit shows a small-scale longhouse's interior, typical of a small home or a seasonal fishing hut. Today, the tribes of the coastal Northwest live in typical American-style houses, but many continue to build longhouses for social and ceremonial gatherings, and the longhouse continues to be an important part of their culture.
Permanent Interpretive Exhibit
Cannon Beach, A Place by the Sea: The History Center, which opened in March 1999, features the permanent exhibit, " Cannon Beach: A Place by the Sea" based on the book by the same name authored by Terence O'Donnell. The exhibit is rich in visual material, telling the story about what attracted people to Cannon Beach throughout time. Drawing from the archives of CBHS, photos reveal the town's past and the arduous journey it was to get here.
The exhibit's first panel describes the Tillamook Indians who originally occupied the land that is called Cannon Beach, and chronicles the tragic impact foreign diseases had on them prior to white settlement of the area. Next, a huge photo mural greets the visitors from Capt. Clark's perspective on Tillamook Head, where he said in his journal, "From this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed". Early homesteading in Cannon Beach and the building of the Tillamook Rock lighthouse feature next. Another large photo mural describes the role logging played in the area's history.
The second phase of the exhibit focuses on the expansion of tourism and recreation in Cannon Beach. Featured are the Warren Hotel, the Cannon Beach Hotel, and the Wave Crest Hotel. One panel also describes the hard times faced by Cannon Beach residents during the Great Depression and in the days of World War II, when the citizens of Cannon Beach were on alert for possible attack. The exhibit's final large panel chronicles Cannon Beach from the post-war era to the present.
All in all, the view from Tillamook Head, the rising sentinels of Haystack Rock and the Needles, and the seven miles of "singing sands" and sparkling surf are like magnets drawing people back year after year to Cannon Beach, a special "place by the sea."
Spanish Audio Translation of Permanent Exhibit
The permanent exhibit at the Cannon Beach History Center is available in Spanish. Visitors to the museum can hear the text of the exhibit read in Spanish, on “hear-sets” located at each major display panel around the museum. Financial support for the Cannon Beach History Center’s Audio Spanish Translation Project was provided by the Bloomfield Family Foundation, Oregon Council for the Humanities, and the City of Cannon Beach. Several Cannon Beach volunteers also contributed translation, recording, and installation services.
The Cannons
The Cannon Beach History Center and Museum is home to the original Cannon Beach cannon. This artifact has always been a subject of interest. The cannon story...
