Mobile museum exhibit opens Feb. 19

Photo by Laura Hancock / Gwendolyn Trice, executive director of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, selects a photograph to add to the exhibit in Hoke. The mobile display unit was donated by the Oregon Historical Society Museum and will be a permanent fixture on campus. 

Celebrate Black History Month with mobile museum debut, film showing

February 10, 2015

LA GRANDE, Ore. (EOU) – Eastern Oregon University is partnering with the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center in Enterprise to bring pieces of history to campus from a once-thriving town north of Wallowa.

Maxville was built in 1923 by a Missouri logging company and closed in the 1930s. Many of its residents were African American loggers and their families who relocated from the south to northeastern Oregon.

Artifacts from the Maxville museum will go on display Thursday, Feb. 19 on the second floor of the Hoke Union Building. The debut is set for 3 p.m. and includes an international coffee hour. Then at 4 and 6 p.m., watch the related Oregon Experience documentary “The Logger’s Daughter.” Discussions will follow both screenings.

Click thumbnail to view event poster.

The mobile museum is being installed on campus courtesy of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center to showcase cultural collaborative displays, events and upcoming presentation throughout the year.

“These opportunities enhance our programming efforts and provide a space for EOU students to learn about the diversity connections in this region,” said Bennie Moses-Mesubed, Multicultural Center director. “We also are launching an internship program in June for EOU students to be involved in the project to document the stories of youth and elders in the region.”

Maxville Heritage, EOU’s Black Student Union and Multicultural Center are making these activities possible as part of Black History Month. For more information about the events and internship program, call 541-962-3741.