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Museum's annual gown exhibit covers decades
The Bandon Historical Society welcomes you to the 62nd-annual Cranberry Festival Sept. 12-14. The theme this year is œCranberry Fields Forever!"
The Historical Society invites you to visit Bandon's museum and enjoy our eighth-annual Cranberry Festival Gown and Memorabilia Exhibit, on display Sept.1-14. The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For festival weekend, we'll also be open 10-3 on Sunday. The museum is located at 270 Fillmore Ave. SE and U.S. Highway 101 (at the downtown stoplight).
The first Bandon Cranberry Festival queen was Ruth Kreutzer, crowned in 1946. The festival continues to grow, and people from all around the area as well as out of state visit to enjoy the fun-filled fall weekend.
The earliest gown displayed in the Cranberry Festival Gown and Memorabilia Exhibit was worn by Marjorie Davison in 1950; the latest by Maura Powell in 2004. Other gowns displayed this year represent festival courts of 1950, 1953, 1958, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1979-80, 1982, 1985-87, 1990-91, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2004.
All the gowns were worn by members of festival courts and then donated to the museum. Two gowns worn by the 1991 queen were donated this year. Thanks to the donations of gowns and other festival memorabilia, this exhibit continues to be one our most popular. If you would like to donate your festival gown or other items from past festivals, contact Judy Knox at the museum, 347-2164.
Also included in the exhibit are photographs, newspaper clippings, coronation night photographs, parade entries, scrapbooks, jewelry, buttons and programs.
Fall is always a great time for Bandon alumni to return home for class reunions. The Bandon High School classes of 1968 and 1998 plan reunions on festival weekend this year. The Historical Society would like to extend a special œwelcome back" to all alumni.
In addition to the special exhibit, visitors to the museum will enjoy learning about Bandon's unique history.
Featured are displays on Native Americans, early-day pioneer families, coal and gold mining, fishing, farming, cheese making, cranberry harvesting, and the timber and logging industries. Other exhibits show early-day tourism in Bandon and how it differs from today, a doctor's office, a business office and a pioneer family bedroom. Another exhibit includes an extensive collection of photographs and memorabilia on the two devastating Bandon fires, the first in 1914 and the second in 1936.
A large maritime room shows shipbuilding on the Coquille River, riverboats, schooners, two- and three-masted vessels sailing over the bar, shipwrecks and shipping commerce. Photographs and boat models from the U.S. Life Saving Service ” now the U.S. Coast Guard ” are displayed, as is an extensive collection of local veterans' military memorabilia.
You're welcome to browse in our gift shop, which offers a great selection of local history books and photographs, along with glass items, handcarved lighthouses and salmon, festival posters, lighthouse bags and much more.
Admission to the museum is $2 for adults; Historical Society members and children under 12 are admitted free. For more information, visit our web site at http://www.bandonhistoricalmuseum.org.
