My first major sightseeing stop was the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, a museum built out of Tillamook’s first courthouse mostly dedicated to local matters. The fact that I hadn’t visited here sooner is noteworthy as it’s right across the street from the current Tillamook County Circuit Court. This museum has been right under my nose for four years, but it’s mostly been off my radar. Last year, when my parents visited Oregon, my father visited the museum and highly recommended it. Now, it was time for me to see it for myself on one cloudy Saturday afternoon.
I could go through the museum exhibits in the order I visited them, but I think it makes more sense to go down thematically. Aside from an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln and a Victorian bedroom replica (located in Tillamook County’s first District Attorney office), the upper floor of the museum is dedicated to natural history, containing rocks, minerals, fossils, preserved butterflies, and taxidermized animals (especially those found in Oregon).
Meanwhile, the ground floor of the museum is mostly dedicated to human history in Tillamook and its surrounding areas, ranging from indigenous tribes to the founding of Tillamook County as a county of Oregon. Part of this involved detailed descriptions of individual settlers and their families who shaped Tillamook as the agricultural community it is today. Overall, there were two main takeaways from looking over Tillamook’s human history. First, I noticed that many settlers followed a similar pattern: they were usually born on the East Coast, they traveled west for job/fortune prospects, they landed in modern-day Tillamook County because of opportunities that suddenly sprang up, and after years of work, they usually traveled to other places as fortunes took them. In other words, their journey mirrored my own! Like them, I was born on the East Coast (New York City, to be exact), I moved out west to find my fortune (my family went to Hawaii for job purposes, and I arrived in Oregon to seek higher education), I came to Tillamook because of an opening in Tillamook County’s public defense needs, and I will likely leave Tillamook when my fortunes change and new opportunities arise. In that way, I feel comforted that I do belong here, as I’ve walked the path of many of Tillamook’s most distinctive citizens.
The second takeaway is that Tillamook’s first white settler (and first schoolteacher/county clerk), who was awesomely named Joseph Champion, spent his early days in the area living out of a hollowed-out tree stump, like a kind of educated forest troll.
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| You thought I was joking about the stump? Nope! The museum has a replica and photos of Joe Champion's "Castle," as he was known to call it. |
There was one other exciting part of the Pioneer Museum that deserves describing. Located in what used to be Tillamook’s first county jail was a wide collection of guns, ranging from early muskets to modern semi-automatic rifles. Being a firearm history enthusiast (due to my love of history and Red Dead Redemption), I snapped several shots of some of my faves!
The next day, I sought out Tillamook’s other major landmark I’ve been meaning to see: the Tillamook Creamery! If you’re like most people, you most likely associate “Tillamook” with cheddar cheese and ice cream. That’s thanks to the Tillamook Creamery, one of the largest employers in Tillamook County. Aside from being the place where they mix ice cream and cut the cheese (ha ha), the Tillamook Creamery has a small museum that goes over what goes into making dairy products and provides an overview of the area’s history. While not as detailed or gun-filled as the Pioneer Museum, this offered another nice look into what makes this county tick. I’d been here before fourteen years ago when visiting with my parents, but it was good to see it for myself as a current resident of the Dairylands. Furthermore, the Tillamook Creamery has a MASSIVE store area where you can buy just about every flavor of cheese, ice cream, and yogurt you could desire, including those not found on many store shelves. I have a hunch I might need to come back here again…
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| Tillamook Creamery |
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| Tillamook Crematory, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Tillamook Creamery, but is close to where I work |
Such was my weekend of exploration in Tillamook County. It turns out you can have a lot of fun if you take the time to explore the small town you’re living in, even if it takes you years to get around to it. I’ll keep my eyes open for other things to do around town as time goes by. In the meantime, I’ve got two other local aspects I’ll be sure to milk: I’ve found the nearest liquor store (quick note for non-Oregonians: it is illegal under Oregon law to sell anything stronger than wine at grocery stores, so if you want primo rum, gin, or vodka, you need to find a specialized location) and I got a local library card (which took a surprising amount of difficulty to get due to my driver’s license being issued prior to moving to Tillamook). With booze and books, my free time here is sure to continue being interesting!
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