WASHOUGAL — When volunteers at Two Rivers Heritage Museum were thinking about new displays for this year, they wanted something that would make guests smile.
The result? A display case full of teddy bears.
“So far, guests have (smiled) when they see it,” said Karen Johnson, a volunteer with the museum who worked on the new exhibit. “It’s a feel-good exhibit.”
Over the years, the museum has amassed a collection of teddy bears, so volunteers decided to display them for when the museum opened for the season in March.
Richard Johnson, her husband, is also a volunteer and board member for the museum, which he said “lives and dies by the donation,” as there are no paid staff.
If You Go
What: Two Rivers Heritage Museum is now open for the 2019 season.
When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, through October.
Where: 1 Durgan St., Washougal.
Cost: $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $2 for students, free for children younger than 5 as well as Camas-Washougal Historical Society members.
More info: The museum will also welcome group tours on any day by appointment only. Call 360-835-8742 or visit 2rhm.com.
A few teddy bears have local connections, Karen Johnson said, such as the Cartier teddy bears made by Camas-based Deri Cartier Bear Company in the early 1980s.
“When the company closed, (Cartier) brought several of her bears over to us,” Karen Johnson said.
The display also features a few Raikes Company teddy bears, which are soft, fluffy bears with wooden faces, as well as a recording by Sunni Lambert, a Cape Horn-Skye Elementary School fourth-grader, discussing the history of the teddy bear.
“Kids love it because of what they can see,” Richard Johnson said. “Adults love it because of what they had.”
The bears are positioned in a glass case, with some in a separate display case next to the main one.
“No matter which direction you come from, there is a bear looking at you,” Karen Johnson said.
The display took a few weeks to set up, as is the case for any major change at the museum, which is open from March through October. Volunteers move things around themselves, and as a group of mostly retired folks, that can take some time.
“One good idea begets a lot of work,” Richard Johnson said.
A lengthier project completed while the museum was closed was moving a bookcase and repainting it, he said. The volunteers moved it to one of the more permanent exhibits in the museum: a replica one-class school. The bookcase now displays old school sweaters, yearbooks and other vintage school memorabilia from the early 20th century.
During the museum’s winter break, the volunteers also tried to bring some more modern features to another part of the museum.
A new display features photos of local monuments, and each has a QR code beneath it. Guests can use their smartphones to read the QR code and bring up information compiled through museum historical archives about each picture. One photo shows the Camas “Slackers’ Monument,” which was built in 1918 and placed in town with the names of men who refused to be drafted into World War I.
Richard Johnson said the goal was to try to get a younger audience to the museum, and get them to focus on what’s there. He said the volunteers hope that if they can get kids into the museum, they’ll be excited by not only the modern features but the old, local equipment used at the paper mill and by other workers.
“Our challenge is any kid can go on the internet and learn pretty much whatever they want,” Richard Johnson said. “How do we get these things in front of kids? You can look it up on the internet, but seeing saws used by loggers in person puts things in a new perspective.”
