7 Best Sights in Eastern Oregon, Oregon

Located at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino, this impressive 45,000-square-foot interpretive center depicts history from the perspective of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes (Tamástslikt means "interpret" in the Walla Walla native language). An art gallery showcases the work of local and regional tribal artists, and on Saturday in summer you can visit the adjacent Living Culture Village, Naami Nishaycht, and watch a variety of talks and demonstrations on everything from tepee building to traditional community games. There's also a museum gift shop, a theater showing a short film about the tribe's heritage, and a café.

The Baker Heritage Museum operates the nearby Adler House Museum, an 1889 Italianate house that was once home to an eccentric publishing magnate and philanthropist.

Located in a stately brick building that once housed the community's swimming pool, Baker's history center has one of the most impressive rock collections in the West. Assembled over a lifetime by a local amateur geologist, the Cavin-Warfel Collection includes thunder eggs, glowing phosphorescent rocks, and a 950-pound hunk of quartz. Other exhibits highlight pioneering, ranching, gold mining, and antique furniture.

In the tiny town of Haines, several miles north of Baker City, this humble museum almost resembles an antiques store or flea market at first glance, and has 10,000 household, farming, mining, and pioneer artifacts. Kids enjoy the one-room schoolhouse, as well as the 100-plus antique dolls and teddy bears. On the grounds is the old Union Pacific depot, built in the 1880s and given to the museum when the railroad discontinued stops at Haines in 1962.

Two miles south of John Day, Canyon City is a small town that feels as if it hasn't changed much since the Old West days. Memorabilia from the gold rush is on display at the town's small museum, along with Native American artifacts and antique musical instruments. Drop in at the neighboring pioneer jail, which the locals pilfered years ago from a nearby crumbling ghost town.

The museum's collection spans the rodeo's history since 1910, with photographs—including glamorous glossies of prior Rodeo Queens and the Happy Canyon Princesses (all Native American)—as well as saddles, guns, and costumes. A taxidermied championship bronco named War Paint is the museum's cool, if slightly creepy, prize artifact.

Joseph's history museum has a small but poignant collection of artifacts and photographs chronicling the flight of the Nez Percé, a series of battles against the U.S. Army that took place in the late 1870s. Built as a bank in 1888, the building was robbed in 1896, an event commemorated by a number of the museum's artifacts, including a massive old safe and some yellowing newspaper accounts.