The museum opened in 1985 utilizing a vacant 1916 Carnegie Library building. In 2003 a newly constructed building, which connects to the library building, tripled the size of the museum. The addition houses traveling exhibits while the library building focuses on local history with permanent and changing exhibits. The traveling exhibit during our visit was Space: A Journey to our Future. We were a little disappointed in the local history exhibits as they do not explore any subject in depth and gloss over the problems encountered at the Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear research center, west of the city. The best part of the history section is a recreated street of storefronts filled with interestingly arranged artifacts.
The museum is accessible but the layout is little confusing. The entrance is in the new building. We wanted to see the history exhibits first which involved going through the space exhibit and down a long ramp into the old library building. To get to the second floor of the history exhibits it’s necessary to go back up the ramp, back through the space exhibit, up the elevator, and then down another ramp (which is hard to find) to the second floor of the old library building.
We parked in the lot behind the small museum lot which might be shared with the Methodist Church. There are no signs indicating ownership. Parking is also available on the street. Museum 43.49073, -112.0374
Just catching up on reading. Love the ghost towns. We were almost in the path of totality for the eclipse, very busy here. Super shot of the elk in the stream. We are on the coast of OR and boxed in by fires. We were heading for Crater Lake, but to many fires and smoke. Fires are terrible. Safe travels.
ReplyDeleteHope you find a clear path through the forest fires.
DeleteWe've been lucky so far and have avoided most of the smoke.