Exhibitions

Flannel is more than a fabric. Flannel shirts, jackets and undergarments have played an important role for laborers in the High Desert. Workers have donned flannel as they logged trees and roped cattle. Later, grunge counterculture adopted flannel as a nod to nonfashion. Blood, Sweat & Flannel explores the region’s labor history though the lens of the […]

Featuring nearly two dozen works from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, this exhibition highlights sculptural and two-dimensional works by one of the Northwest’s most celebrated artists, Rick Bartow (Mad River Band of the Wiyot Tribe,1948-2016)    

Leave your pop-culture notions behind as you learn about the past, present and future of Sasquatch through the work of five Native artists. See their representations, stories and artwork about this “non-human other” and learn how they vary between tribes across regions in this High Desert Museum original exhibition.    

Meet some creatures of the High Desert in our Desertarium. Despite harsh conditions, the High Desert is teeming with life. Lizards, snakes and tortoises are well equipped for the dry climate and sandy soil, and where there’s water, there are turtles, frogs, salamanders and many species of fish.

Spirit of the West offers an unforgettable walk through time. Your journey starts with a stroll past a Northern Paiute shelter and a fur trapper’s camp where all the historical details are depicted in incredible detail. Continue through the Hudson’s Bay Company fort, alongside an Oregon Trail wagon, through a hard rock mine, past a […]

By Hand Through Memory will take you through the little known journey of the Plateau Indian Nations as they traveled from reservation confinement to the 21st century. This immersive exhibit highlights the experiences of Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yakama, Spokane and Colville people.

Juniper and Tumbleweed are sibling porcupines who live at the Museum. Tumbleweed is a male porcupine who stars in our summer Desert Dwellers program. His sister, Juniper, also makes appearances in our natural habitat exhibit located in the Schnitzer Entrance Hall, just inside the Museum doors.

Blanket Stories: Talking Stick, Works Progress, Steward was created by Portland-based artist Marie Watt for the Museum’s 2016 exhibition Art for a Nation: Inspiration from the Great Depression. In the spirit of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Museum commissioned Watt to create two sculptures for the exhibition: one from wood and one from blankets.

Stop by and see what life was like for locals more than a hundred years ago. They will get your kids to do the chores they may refuse to do at home: digging in the garden, washing the laundry, or cross-cutting firewood. And when they’re finished, they can enjoy playing some frontier games. On the […]

The Autzen Otter Exhibit is located outdoors and includes both outdoor and indoor viewing areas. Recently renovated, the outdoor glass walls provide great viewing for kids and those in wheelchairs to watch the otters.

Get a close-up look at some of nature’s most spectacular predators – owls, hawks, eagles, falcons and even vultures. There are Charisma and Kokanee the bald eagles, Nicholas the golden eagle, Luna the great horned owl and more.

Authentic 1904 sawmill. See an authentic sawmill that was used at the turn of the 20th century to process wood with an enormous blade slicing through thick Oregon timber.

One of the first things you see when you enter the Museum grounds is a little white building with a green roof. It’s an authentic U.S Forest Service ranger station office building from the Toiyabe National Forest, built in 1933.

The High Desert region is a complex landscape that features more than just sagebrush. This exhibit explains the role of forests and their dynamic nature in an arid environment. Learn about nutrient cycles, soils, impacts, wildlife and the influences of the dynamic trio: water, sunlight and air in the life cycle of a changing forest.