Bend, OR

The Central Oregon area has a lot of widespread history. You can obtain bits of knowledge of what life was like here and when things happened by reading the various history books published about our area but you can’t touch them except within your mind. Well what if you want something a bit more tangible. To be able to really see and not in pictures, the life in which we used to live. Living inside of the Historic Reid School built in 1914 made of colored volcanic debris is a place of extreme knowledge and tangible history.

The Historical Museum has three floors packed and organized with original writings of hard travels and what people thought, pioneering exhibits, logging, education and the advancement of technology throughout the ages. You’ll get to walk through the make shift houses, school rooms and camps. Feel the old canvas of the original cars and covered wagons that used to prevail on our roads. See the original tools of the different trades, in general learn, from hands on, the way of our home and of our evolvement.

I love taking my kids here. It is great to be able to afford them this up close and personal touch of history that they seem to be more interested in than that of what they may learn from a book. It is great to watch them with great excitement of learning and enjoying it to. Listening to the questions they ask and hear each “Wow, check this out” is music to my ears. I love that they love this place and no matter how often we come here they always seem to find something new.

The Buckboard Provisioning Co. is a small little gift shop and for each sale, the historical museum receives a generous commission which helps them to better maintain and continue adding from the present past and future. Buckboard provides healthy batter breads, snacks, organic fruit spreads and beverages, each based on a real person, place or incident from the Old West. Products may be purchased at the museum itself.

Lastly, though I have yet to see evidence of it, it is rumored that the museum is haunted though the ghost is said to be friendly. Legend is that when the school was being built, a worker fell to his death from a ladder.

The museum is located at 129 NW Idaho Avenue, downtown Bend. For precise directions, hours and admittance cost please call 541-389-1813. This facility is handicap accessible and have restroom facilities.