High Desert Museum

Mom and her friend visited the Digh Desert Museum in Bend. Because of "rules" I wasn't allowed to go inside and had to wait in my cage, but mom told me all about it. I'm sorry I missed it. It sounded very interesting!

There were real animals at the entrance, and statues of some too.

Rainbow Trout

Golden Mantle Squirrel

1914 Model T Ford

There were many things to see. An old Model T car, a life size replica of a pioneer homestead cabin, and a scale model of a lumber mill.

This small cabin is a replica of the 1880 homestead of the Blair family. The inside has been carefully furnished much as it might have look over 100 years ago.

Below is a one-inch to one-foot scale model of a 1920 steam-powered commercial sawmill and a cabin. The model took the builder, Tom Lackey, 25 years to build. The mill is based on the mill where his father worked, and the cabin is based on the home Tom grew up in.

There are several sculptures of varying composition throughout the museum. The one of the mare and foal below are made of barbed-wire.

Prairie Falcon

The museum had quite a few birds of prey . . . some didn't cooperate with having their picture taken. There were also some forest animals, and a shy river otter that mom wasn't able to photograph either.

America's National Symbol . . . the Bald Eagle

Photo courtsey of J. S.

Porcupine

Ever played peek-a-boo with a porcupine? Mom did!

In a section of the main building there was a
walk-through display of life in a frontier town.

Some people arrived by stage coach, others by covered wagon.

Their interests and trades were varied . . .

Fur Traders, of many nationalities, who found wealth in soft pelts . . .

. . . Hard Rock Miners, who were some of the highest paid industrial workers at the time, earning $4.00 a day! Their shoes were hob-nailed to give them longer life for the miner working amongst broken rock.

Placer Miners seeking gold!

Building small cabins and furnishing them with the bare essentials of life.

And Settlers who built commerce and communities.

Construction camps and boomtowns had crude saloons, while the towns establishments were more refined and hosted gambling and . . . other . . . forms of entertainment such as Dance Hall Girls.

Gambling Halls offered a variety of games of chance. Some were more honest than others.

Card playing professional gamblers used several ways of marking decks of card in their favor.

The edge of a card might be shaved, a corner rounded, or in some cases, small Braille-like indentations made on a card to identify it by feel. There were many other "tricks of the trade", but these tended to be the most popular.

With very little in the way of law and order, life in these towns was far from ordinary. Dance Hall girls in beautiful dresses, rugged frontiersmen with money to spend, and guns for defense carried by almost everyone.
Sounds to me like a place where almost anything could happen!