This series furthers the Willamette Heritage Center’s mission of connecting generations through gathering, preserving, and sharing Mid-Willamette Valley History.

Whether in person or from home our speakers bring historical perspectives on topics related to the Mid-Willamette Valley and beyond.

Next Speaker: Dr. Bob Reinhardt
January 25, 2024
5:30 PM
$15 admission (purchase tickets below)

10% discount for WHC Members

Dr. Reinhardt now serves as Associate Professor of History at Boise State University and director of The Atlas of Drowned Towns -the topic for this presentation. This public history project grew from his Master’s thesis, which included a chapter on Detroit, Oregon, a drowned town to which he compared another drowned town, Hover, Washington. This chapter was also a 2011 award-winning article for the Western Historical Quarterly.

The Atlas of Drowned Towns explores the histories of the dozens of communities in the American West inundated by dam construction in the twentieth century — places like Detroit, Oregon, which had to move in 1953 to make way for the Detroit Dam. From the Snake and Sacramento to the Columbia and Colorado, massive hydroelectric, irrigation, and flood control dams tower over western rivers. Beneath the shadows and underneath the reservoirs of these dams lie the remnants of homelands, towns, villages, and other homes displaced or eliminated to make way for twentieth-century ideas of progress. For the broader public as well as policymakers, these disappeared places have passed out of memory and into myth. Recovering the submerged pasts of lost communities will reveal the historical significance of marginalized places in the American West, encourage appreciation of the complexity of such places, and provide lessons for the future of river development and community displacement.

This year, enjoy the presentation from your home via Zoom OR join other history enthusiasts, WHC Curator, and WHC Education manager, in person to view the Zoom presentation in the Dye House with light hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

We’re excited once again to gather in lively discussion with our history enthusiasts and further the Willamette Heritage Center’s mission of connecting generations through gathering, preserving, and sharing Mid-Willamette Valley History.