Oregon Museum Celebrates Desert Flora and Fauna

High Desert Museum Offers Fun, Educational, Hands-On Experiences

Mar 11, 2009 Cheryl Probst

The High Desert Museum in central Oregon offers fun learning experiences for visitors of all ages. It is an opportunity to learn about life in a different environment.

Set among the splendor of towering pine trees, the High Desert Museum offers visitors a chance to learn about pioneer life in the 1800s in addition to learning about flora and fauna that are native to the high desert. It’s even possible to get up close and personal with farm animals.

Statues of wild animals abound from the moment visitors enter the grounds. Bronze statues of a doe with two fawns are near a small creek bordering the parking lot. Near the main building is a magnificent bronze statue of two elk fighting, their horns locked in battle. Statues of other wild animals, including birds, can be found throughout the grounds.

The main building has exhibits about high desert life as well as glass cases holding rattlers and other snakes, and poisonous members of the spider family, including black widows, scorpions and tarantulas.

View Playful Otters and Squirrels

Out back, visitors can wander the trails to see ponds with live otters and beavers. Squirrels entertain visitors as they race around, climbing up poles to eat from containers filled with snacks just for them.

The museum has more than 100 species of animals on site, ranging from eagles and owls to fish and frogs. The museum offers an “adopt an animal” where visitors can donate from $15 to $125 to sponsor upkeep of an animal for a year. Spiders or frogs are $15 while sponsorship of a bald eagle or lynx is $125.

Visitors Can Help with Farm Chores

The museum is a microcosm of pioneer life. The High Desert Homestead Ranch is open weekends. It is a living history museum of daily life on a high desert ranch in 1880. Visitors can meet the family, pet farm animals, and even help out with the chores such as churning butter, dipping candles or splitting wood.

In the back is an old-fashioned steam-powered sawmill. Sawyers use it to turn logs into lumber when something needs to be built at the museum. It does not operate every day.

Pioneer Porch in the main hall features costumed artists demonstrating such crafts as quilting and rug-hooking. The demonstration schedule changes, so visitors should check with the admissions office for what’s happening that day.

The Hall of Settlement and Exploration takes visitors back through time, starting with an Indian rock shelter and ending with a replica of an 1885 town. The hall is open during museum hours, with guided interpretive tours at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. daily.

High Desert Museum Located South of Bend, OR

The High Desert Museum is located a few miles south of Bend, OR, at 59800 S. Highway 97. Highway 97 is the main north-south route through central Oregon, connecting Washington and California. The museum is open daily, except for Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s. From May 1 through October 31, the museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The rest of the year it is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Summer admission fees are $15 for adults and $9 for children ages 5-12. Winter admissions are $10 and $6 respectively.

The museum is handicapped accessible, and wheelchairs are loaned free to visitors who need them.

The copyright of the article Oregon Museum Celebrates Desert Flora and Fauna in NW U.S./Alaska Travel is owned by Cheryl Probst. Permission to republish Oregon Museum Celebrates Desert Flora and Fauna in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.