The Seaside Museum & Historical Society of Oregon is a non-profit educational institution incorporated by the State of Oregon to collect, preserve and interpret materials illustrative of the history of Seaside, Oregon, and the surrounding area.
Your adventure will take you back thousands of years, and then bring you forward to the recent past. Allow yourself at least an hour to get an overview of the galleries.
The site is also home to the Butterfield Cottage, Seaside’s first seashore resort, which had become a major tourist attraction of the Pacific Northwest by 1888. Excursion boats came down the Columbia River with vacationers who disembarked on a railroad trestle in the bay near Skipanon (Warrenton) and then to Seaside by train. The cottage is surrounded by gardens tended by the local Sou’Wester Garden Club (a member of the Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs since 1946).
NATIVE AMERICAN EXHIBIT
In the Native American exhibit, you start your journey at the Palmrose and Par-Tee Archeological Digs which were conducted by the Smithsonian Institution during the 1970s. Artifacts were carbon isotope dated and found to be over 2,000 years old. From these artifacts the lifestyle of the inhabitants could be determined. Some of these artifacts are displayed along with drawings and interpretive signage.
Other displays in the Native American exhibit include:
A lighted, interactive wall map featuring Native American names of geographical features and sites in Clatsop County, Oregon;
A map of Native American tribes and languages; Chinook trade jargon;
A model of a Clatsop Indian long house, made according to details as described by Lewis and Clark;
Hand-crafted items made by Clatsop Indians in the late 1800s;
A Lewis and Clark display featuring quotes from the journals, interpretive signage, and artifacts;
A diorama of the Lewis and Clark salt works, illustrating the way the Corps of Discovery expedition retrieved salt from the ocean; Jennie Michelle’s portrait (Jennie Michelle, the last known full blooded Clatsop Indian in Seaside, Oregon, identified the location of the Lewis and Clark Salt Works, in 1904).
LOGGING
A display of very early logging photographs donated to the museum by Crown Zellerbach. Hotels A pictorial history of the hotel at Seaside’s Turnaround depicts the progression of ownership from the Grimes Hotel to the Hotel Moore, Seasider Hotel, Seaside Motor Inn, and up to the present Shilo Hotel. There is also a display of artifacts and photos from other Seaside hotels, dating from the late 1800s through the 1960s.