Posted: Jul 6, 2005  11:09

In the famous novel, Call of the Wild, by Jack London, the once treasured pet, Buck, finds himself displaced in the wilderness.

In order to survive, he returns to his ancestral identity, where instinct and the desire for mastery replaces all considerations for the welfare of others.

The High Desert Museum is awesome in its scope and quality. It is a must see on your way through Oregon!

Donald M. Kerr, founder of the High Desert Museum in Bend, OR, however, has put a new spin on what it means to live the life of the predatory animal. Inspired by his own experiences with raising a wolf pup and birds of prey, he established the beginnings of a wildlife museum with the mission of bringing others closer to nature.

The museum, located three and one half miles south of Bend on Highway 97, civilizes the life of its native desert animals by providing opportunities for visitors to learn more about them in the hope of encouraging others to make thoughtful decisions about our world and the animals with which we share it.

By providing interactive experiences with native desert animals, exhibits, interpretive talks, plays, large walk-through dioramas, aquariums, historical objects, and educational programs for students, youth and adults, visitors can come to a greater appreciation of the beauty and connection that we share with animals in the High Desert region.

The Museum’s exhibit topics range from art and photography to cultural and natural history of the region.

Live animal exhibits are a favorite of visitors to the Museum.

In addition, the Museum provides a home, in natural habitats, for many native animals of the High Desert region such as, pallid bats, kangaroo rats, collared lizards, Lahotan trout, hawks, owls, kestrels, eagles, wild horses or burros, and otters, among others.

The museum’s park-like forested grounds cover 135-acres of high desert that includes 53,000 square feet of indoor exhibits, an outdoor arboretum trail, outdoor exhibits and animal habitats.

For example, visitors can watch birds-of-prey in naturalistic habitats while they enjoy an interpretive talk given by a museum employee in the Raptors of the Desert Sky exhibit.

In the outdoor exhibit, Mustang Corral, developed in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, visitors observe professionals at work as they gentle and saddle-break wild horses or burros, gathered from southeastern Oregon, in preparation to be adopted in the spring.

Take a walk through the Spirit of the Old West and see life-size dioramas of the dusty Oregon Trail, mining underground for the Comstock Lode, and experiences of settling the west.

The By Hand through Memory, exhibit focuses on the Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Yakima tribes, who provide an incredible wealth of culture and diversity to the High Desert region.

The By Hand through Memory, exhibit focuses on Native Americans tribes of the Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Yakima, who provide an incredible wealth of culture and diversity to the High Desert region.

The museum has large walk-through dioramas, displays of clothing, beadwork, and other historical objects showing a vivid depiction of the tribes’ historical lifestyles and present day adaptations.

Children enjoy the many interactive exhibits, such as the new Dinostories! created by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, where young visitors can sit in a life-size model of a dinosaur nest, dig for ancient “fossils,” compare samples of dinosaur teeth, and play a dinosaur matching game.

Steve and Sarah Geisler, Wilsonville, OR, visit the High Desert Museum with their family and say it is worth coming to Oregon to see!

Another interactive exhibit for youngsters is a representation of a present-day field ecologist's research station called, Whose Home? A Place of Discovery. Children can climb through desert rim rock, identify desert animals, dress like an ecologist, and use puppets of regional animals to create their own world of the high desert through imagination.

In addition, the museum provides an incredible variety of adaptations for visitors, as well as for its animals, through educational programs, including festivals, discovery classes and tours, outdoor schools for groups of up to 100, and teacher workshops offering professional development opportunities.

This summer, watch for Traveling the Trail, Wagons Ho! Museum personnel walk with students in the actual footsteps of pioneers on the Oregon Trail. The participants travel to Mt. Hood and look for still-remaining wagon ruts, visit the Devil's Half-Acre, Barlow Pass, Pioneer Woman's Grave, Summit Meadows and Chute Number Three of Laurel Hill.

Park-like grounds provide a scenic setting and educational experiences for all ages.

The Adventures in Archaeology class provides students, grade four to six, opportunity to become an archaeologist for a day, using tools to excavate a mock site and then visit real archaeological sites to see how early Central Oregonians lived!

Nature Explorations ponders the questions: What is nature? What can nature teach me about how to love? Students explore the majestic natural beauties found at Todd, Sparks and Devil's Lake, including short readings, journaling/sketching, and watercolor painting.

Museum, Madness and Fun provides games and crafts to children in the Hollinshead Barn and then lunch in the meadows by the Museum and a swim at Juniper Pool.

The High Desert Museum is supported completely by the generosity of others and provides nurturing support to wild animals through the education and experiences it offers to it visitors. Kerr envisioned a new type of museum, one that revealed the close connections between people and their environment.

Donald M. Kerr , founder of the High Desert Museum, raised a wolf and two great horned owls. He envisioned bringing others closer to nature, to experience it, and to learn to maintain it.

"I've raised a wolf and two great horned owls," founder Donald M. Kerr said, as noted on a museum placard. "I've been lucky to have these experiences that aren't possible for most people. I wanted to bring others closer to nature, to experience it, and to learn to maintain it."

He established the Western Natural History Museum in 1974, which later expanded into a greater regional role and opened in 1982, as the Oregon High Desert Museum. I highly recommend a visit!

Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more information refer to the web page at High Desert Museum or email for Information