Welcome To Bandon Visitors Guide 2012

• Visit Bandon's historical museum & gift shop

Published: Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 Visit BandonŐs historical museum & gift shop While enjoying your time in our city, visit the Bandon Historical Society Museum at the corner of U.S. Highway 101 and Fillmore Avenue Southeast (at the downtown stop light).
"We would like to invite you to stop and enjoy Bandon's wonderful and unique history, and take a walk back into our past," said Judy Knox, the museum's executive director.
The 72-year-old museum building, originally constructed to serve as a temporary City Hall, was the second structure built after the Bandon Fire of 1936. It served in that capacity until a new City Hall was constructed in 1970.
"We invite you to leisurely enjoy Bandon's past and our rich and wonderful history," Knox said. "The museum has more than 4,000 square feet of exhibit and display space, and more than 1,600 photographs depicting Bandon's past. When you visit our museum, we hope your visit will remind you of times, places and people in your past."

The museum's collections include:
• Local Native Americans, known as the 'Na-So-Mah' band, are more commonly known today as the Coquille Indian Tribe. They have inhabited this area for thousands of years. Enjoy viewing hand-woven baskets, stone tools, arrowheads, paint pots, clay pipes, photographs and many more items.
• Artifacts and photographs reveal the local logging, fishing, coal and gold mining industries.
• Learn about dairy farming and cheesemaking in this small community - and how important they were. In the early 1900's, milk was carried by riverboats from the dairies to the cheese plants. The museum's newest exhibit is on Bandon Cheese, and covers the era from the 1920s until the local cheese factory's closing in 2003.

"We still have people visit the museum asking about the Bandon Cheese Factory," said Knox. "Bandon Cheese was known worldwide and is still missed by all of us."
• Cranberry farming and harvesting are still big parts of Bandon's economy. Museum visitors can see how cranberries have been grown and harvested here through the years.
• The museum's maritime collections are housed in a very large room and include shipbuilding on the Coquille River in the 1800's, plus photographs and artifacts of riverboats, sailing vessels, shipwrecks and shipping commerce during their local hey-days. Models of riverboats and U.S. Coast Guard vessels that served the area also are featured.
• The natural history display includes many photographs of local wildlife, a reconstruction of a Gray Grampus dolphin, a Golden eagle and other items.
• The construction and early operation of Bandon's Coquille River Lighthouse, built in 1896, are depicted in photographs, as is the former lighthouse keeper's home. A large collection of photographs and paintings of the lighthouse is available for purchase in the museum's gift shop.
• Local military servicemen and women are honored and remembered through a display of military uniforms that includes each branch of the service. The collection also includes photographs, scrapbooks, keepsakes and other items donated by soldiers' families.
• Museum guests are invited to "visit" pioneer families and early-day businesses. Exhibits include a doctor's office, a bedroom from the 1900's, a spinning wheel, a piano and more. You can learn how important tourism and entertainment were in the early days compared to today. Guests also can enjoy viewing period clothing worn by women from the 1920's to the 1960's.
• The museum's schools exhibit includes photos of schools and students from the past, along with school sports and other activities. Many donated school-related items are on display. Every five years, the Historical Society sponsors an all-school alumni reunion. The next one is scheduled for 2010.
• Learn about Bandon's Irish connection and George Bennett, who came from Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, in 1891 and named this town after that one. Bennett also brought gorse (Irish hedge) to the area.
• Learn about the destruction caused during Bandon's two disastrous fires - the first in 1914 and the second in 1936. Read newspapers from the period and view a large collection of photographs of the aftermath. Learn about the hardy citizens who stayed to rebuild Bandon. In 1936, many residents lived in tents through the rainy season, while working and rebuilding their homes and the community. This terrible disaster made Bandonians stronger.
• Guests will be interested in our display on the former Millard School, a military preparatory school that was located in Langlois and Bandon. A written history on the Millard School and Foundation by Bill Marvel explains that the school began in Washington, D.C., then moved to Langlois in 1953 and to Bandon in 1981. Homer and Esther Millard founded and operated the school.
The museum exhibit includes photographs and letters, along with the school's mascot, a falcon. Also on display is a solid brass cannon from Napoleon's Third Army in the Franco-Prussian War. The cannon was a gift to Homer Millard and was displayed at the Millard School until its closing.

Gift shop, tours
The museum's gift shop features Bandon-area history books, volumes on Oregon history, historic photographs reproduced in-house, note cards, maritime items, myrtlewood pieces, T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, paintings, posters and many more items.
The museum welcomes tours of large and small groups, with or without tour guides. Students, class groups, seniors and church, civic and other interested groups are encouraged to visit.
The Historical Society owns the museum building. The museum's operation is supported through admission charges, sales of reproduced historic photographs, memberships, memorials, fundraisers, donations and gift shop sales. The city of Bandon also supports the museum.
The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $2 for adults. Children under 12 and Historical Society members are admitted free.
For more information about the Bandon Historical Society Museum, call or fax (541) 347-2164 or visit the Web site at www.bandonhistoricalmuseum.org


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