Saturday, August 12, 2017

Men Love Peppy Girls

Union, Oregon is a small town a little ways down the road from us.  In searching for things to do in the area we discovered there is a museum in Union called the Union County Museum.  We enjoy visiting museums and headed out to do some exploring.

Union County has a rich history that begins with Native Americans and continues through the passage of pioneers during the early days of the Historic Oregon Trail migration.  People began settling in the area when gold was discovered in the Blue Mountains in 1862.

The museum is staffed by very nice volunteers.  One of the women working the day we visited was very good at being helpful with interesting facts and tidbits.  She knew when to leave us to explore on our own and wasn’t overwhelming with too much information.   That is a sign of a very good guide and is really hard for most people to accomplish.  We appreciated her enthusiasm and knowledge and also her willingness to let us discover all the museum had to offer on our own.

After paying a small entry fee - I got the senior discount - we were immediately engrossed in this very well maintained museum.  It turned out to be much larger than it looked from the outside as there were more buildings in the back.

For a while I didn’t think we were ever going to get past the front door!  There was so much to see. 

The museum starts with all kinds of medical equipment and information about the area around the late 1800’s.  I always find old medical equipment fascinating and somewhat creepy.
Early syringe - this looks painful! 
 Amputation kit - it didn't look like it had ever been used.
I wonder how well these worked!

Did you like the title to the blog?  Well, you can be a peppy girl too!

We moved on to life in town with the general store, post office and bank. 
The General Store display was loaded with interesting items. 
 Original General Store ledger from October 8, 1884.
Post Office.
Bank vault.

It seems like I always find the hand crafts the most interesting part of any museum we visit (I wonder why?).

The Union County Museum has some wonderful displays of hand crafts, clothing and decorating.



Beautiful stitch work!

 Button Hooks.

Button collection.
My mother had a button box.  I remember pushing my hands through all the buttons, dumping them on the floor and sorting by size.  It was a lot of fun.  I wish I had them now.  If I had room, I would collect buttons.

All the rooms in a typical house were full of interesting things to view.
 Bedroom
 Parlor
 Bath
 Kitchen

After seeing all there was to see inside the museum, our wonderful volunteer told us there was more to see in the buildings out back.

There was a lot more to see!  Wagons, black smith shop, etc.
 Blacksmith shop
 Wagon displays
I had no idea there was a wagon odometer!

We had a great time wandering through this delightful museum.  If you’re ever in the area, it’s a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.


8 comments:

  1. That looks like a very enjoyable museum.I love looking at lace and crafts also. This summer at the museum ar Farragut has taught us how to read people. Some want to be left alone and others want a guided tour. Very interesting to watch our visitors.

    Virginia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the great blog post Teri. Looks like Mark and I lucked out and ended up with two peppy gals. Was Mark making a bank withdrawal? If so, send some my way please.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He was looking at a repaired portion of the wall that had been blown up by a bank robber. The blog was getting very long so I had to leave some things out.

      Delete
  3. Good to eat those vegetables! Cool lace work with the name! I remember this museum from our stays in the area. In the back there was a home-made snow plow contraption. I can't remember the details.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is a very nice museum. The displays were well thought-out and interesting.

      Delete
  4. And the main ingredient in Lydia's Vegetable Compound was probably alcohol! Many respectable ladies would never drink alcohol, but had their "tonic" every evening.

    ReplyDelete