The Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum
Marcus Larson
News-Register file photo

Fall is the perfect time to visit a museum. And Yamhill County residents have plenty of choices, whether they want to stay close to home or want to make it an all day trip.

Interested in art? Visit the Portland Art Museum, which attracts major traveling exhibits, or check out the changing displays in the Miller Fine Arts Gallery on the Linfield College campus, along with local sales galleries.

How about history? The Yamhill County Historical Society offers two museums close to home: one in a historic church in Lafayette and the other in the new Yamhill Valley Heritage Center just west of McMinnville. Champoeg State Heritage Area has a comprehensive interpretive display just south of Newberg. The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is just an hour’s drive away in Oregon City; if you have a weekend, travel to Baker City to visit the Oregon Trail museum there.

Fascinated by water? Drive to Portland to see the Oregon Maritime Center & Museum in an old sternwheeler tug, or continue on to Astoria for the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which features the state’s only floating lighthouse.

And if transportation is your thing, of course you’ll want to spend time at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville. For a day trip, visit the old blimp hangar at Tillamook, Antique Powerland at Brooks or the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in Hood River.

You also can visit the country’s largest hat museum in Portland, a museum of rocks and minerals in Hillsboro, the Aurora Colony Museum or one of many others within a comfortable day’s drive. Or, you can tour one Oregon museum while staying at home — check out the online-only Bathtub Art Museum at www.bathtubmuseum.org.

If you’re headed for a museum that’s real, not virtual, plan the visit to suit your own schedule. Since most museums are mostly or entirely indoors, you won’t have to worry about the weather forecast. Just be sure to allow plenty of time — at least two hours, for most venues — to really look at the exhibits.

Many museums have cafés where you can grab a snack. Consider packing a picnic lunch if you’d rather save your cash for that one-of-a-kind souvenir keychain in the gift shop.

Most museums charge admission, so plan accordingly. Some are open free one day a month; some reduce their fees starting in November, if they stay open year-round.

And on Saturday, Sept. 26, — the nationwide Museum Day — museums affiliated with Smithsonian magazine and Smithsonian.com will be open free. A few of those are located in the Willamette Valley. Please see related story below.

Whether you visit on Museum Day or choose a different day, museums will be waiting, filled with plenty to see and learn.
Here are details about some of our favorites.

Close to home

• Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 503-434-4180, www.sprucegoose.org. Adult admission runs from $14 for one museum to $32 for both museums and a movie in the IMAX theater.

• Yamhill County Historical Society locations: Historical Museum in Lafayette, with documents, textiles and a wide array of artifacts, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; Yamhill Valley Heritage Center, Durham Lane at Highway 18 just west of McMinnville, with vintage farm equipment and more, call 503-864-2308 for hours. Admission by donation.

• Hoover-Minthorn House, President Herbert Hoover’s boyhood home, 115 S. River St., Newberg, 503-538-6629, open 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday (winter hours 1 to 4 p.m. weekends only; closed January). Admission by donation.

Also nearby

• Old Aurora Colony Museum, Second and Liberty in Aurora, 503-678-5754, with exhibits about the original settlement there. Admission charge.

• Antique Powerland, 3995 Brooklake Road N.E. in Brooks just north of Salem, www.antiquepowerland.com, 503-393-2424, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday through Oct. 31 (closed November through February), miniature ride-on railroad open Sundays. A collection of museums dedicated to old cars, trucks, railroads and steam-powered equipment. Admission $5 for those 12 and older.

• Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals, 26385 N.W. Groveland Drive, Hillsboro, 503-647-2418, www.ricenwmuseum.org, 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Richard L. and Helen M. Rice founded the museum in 1996 to show off the wonders of nature. Admission $7 adults, $5 students 5-17, $6 seniors.

• End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, 1726 Washington St., Oregon City, 503-657-9336, www.endoftheoregontrail.org, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission charge.

Portland

• Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 1945 S.E. Water St. on the east bank of the Willamette in Portland, with both changing and permanent exhibits, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, $11 adults, $9 youths and seniors, www.omsi.edu.

• The Hat Museum, with 900-plus hats the largest in the country, 503-232-0433, located in the historic Ladd-Reingold House just across the river from downtown, reservations required. Admission $15.

• Oregon Maritime Center & Museum, inside the old sternwheeler tug Portland between the Morrison and Burnside bridges downtown, 503-224-7724, www.oregonmaritimemuseum.org, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Explores Oregon’s maritime history and how rivers have been used for transportation, freight moving and recreation. Admission $5 adults, $4 for those 62 and older, $3 students 6 to 17.

• Portland Art Museum, located at 1219 S.W. Park Ave., Portland, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday; www.pam.org, 503-226-2811. Admission $12 adults, $9 seniors 55 and older or students 18 and up, free to children 17 and younger.

• Oregon History Museum and Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., Portland, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission $11 adults, $9 students over 18 and seniors over 60, $5 children 6 to 18.

Farther afield

• High Desert Museum, 59800 S. Highway 97, Bend, 541-382-4754. Features the people, plants and animals of Central and Eastern Oregon. Admission $15 adults, $12 youths through Oct. 31; winter fees are $10 adults, $6 youths.

• International Museum of Carousel Art, Hood River, 541-387-4622. Home to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of antique carousel art, the museum is closed temporarily for relocation; however, the website, www.carouselmuseum.com, offers a comprehensive “tour” of the history and trivia of carousels.

• Kam Wah Chung & Company Museum, N.W. Canton/City Park, John Day, 541-575-0028, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Oct. 31. The museum honors Chinese businessman Lung On and herbal doctor Ing Hay, who treated the nearly 2,500 Chinese gold-mine workers and pioneers, including John Day himself. Free.

• National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Flagstaff Hill five miles east of 1-84 at Baker City, 541-523-1843, www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail. Admission $8 adults through October or $5 from November through March; free for youth 15 and younger.

Museum Day

On Museum Day, Saturday, Sept. 26, visitors can explore Smithsonian-affiliated museums for free. Several are located within easy driving distance of Yamhill County.

To gain admission, first go to www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday and print out a free admission coupon, which is good for two people. Show the coupon at the door.

The free admission list for Saturday includes:

• Antique Powerland in Brooks, a collection of cars, trains and farm equipment.

• The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro,

• The World Forestry Center in Washington Park, Portland, with displays about Oregon forest history.

• The Oregon History Museum in downtown Portland.

• The Architectural Heritage Center, Portland.

• The University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Nationwide, more than 1,000 museums are participating in the fifth-annual Museum Day. Last year, more than 200,000 people visited participating museums that day.

For more information, go to www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday.