UMPQUA DISCOVERY CENTER
"Our past is our present to you"


The Tower

The Umpqua Discovery Center is accessible from a Boardwalk along the beautiful Umpqua River Waterfront. Get an even broader view of the Umpqua River Estuary through the 35 foot periscope in the community room.


A view from the tower

The Center's award winning series of cultural history exhibits, "Tidewaters & Time", that tells the unique history of a town where daily life revolved around whether the tide was coming in or going out. This story not only applies to Reedsport but also to any number of river towns along the Oregon Coast. As you enter the exhibits, you hear the sounds of the river rushing and feel nature surround you as you journey back through history. The multi-sensory exhibits communicate on many levels utilizing sight, sound, and touch,

The Community Room, with wooden benches surrounding the 35' periscope offer a place to relax and enjoy a view of the Umpqua River.

In the new “Pathways To Discovery – Exploring Tidewater Country” natural history wing, you will have a totally unique experience. The exhibit is an adventure for the young and the young at heart. The exhibition is designed as a simulated landscape representing “Tidewater Country” from sea level to the peaks of the Coast Range. “Pathways To Discovery – Exploring Tidewater Country” is essentially a trail with landings for viewing interpretive environments.

It is the purpose of the design to cast the visitor as a hiker who travels a Pathway to Discovery through sixteen interpretive zones. The environments are staged as a day walk beginning in the estuary at sunrise, traveling up into the Coast Range in the afternoon, and then down to the ocean beach at sunset. The trail will also lead the visitor sequentially through the four seasons beginning in the fall and finishing in the summer. A powerful, high-arching message in the exhibition is that of an inter-connected and inter-related ecology.

Both “Tidewaters & Time” and “Pathways To Discovery – Exploring Tidewater Country” were designed and fabricated by WOW Arts & Exhibits. Murals by Peggy O’Neal.

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e-mail: umpquadiscoverycenter@charterinternet.com

Or call (541) 271-4816
Umpqua Discovery Center
409 Riverfront Way
Reedsport, OR, 97467


Web Site created by:
Georg Hess