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Tag: Washington State

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Books, Travel Planning, United States

Marvelous Maryhill Museum

October 31, 2012September 3, 2015 Jane Sadek
Maryhill Museum, Maryhill WA, Columbia River Gorge
Enjoying the sculpture garden at Maryhill Museum of Art

TRAVEL HERE: MARY HILL MUSEUM OF ART, WASHINGTON STATE

Welcome to Oregon! Well, sort of. This past summer my husband and I spent twelve days traveling the state and now I’m sharing the experience with you. I’ll tell you about the attractions we visited, the meals we ate and where we stayed. Maybe you’ll decide you want to visit Oregon, too. Today’s focus is The Maryhill Museum of Art, just across the Columbia River Gorge in Washington State.

Plnning for Maryhill Museum of Art

I grin every time I think about this museum.  Traditional travel wisdom tells you  when you’re traveling west from Portland you should turn right at Hood River and head towards Mount Hood.  Instead I continued on to The Dalles so I’d be near Maryhill Museum of Museum of Art.  The price was a particularly bad meal, but well worth the inconvenience.

And once again I have to thank my National Geographic The American Road Atlas and Travel Planner.  I mentioned that The Dalles has the Columbia River Discovery Museum and it was originally the target of my visit to The Dalles, but thanks to my trusty atlas I also googled all the nearby towns on either side of the Columbia River.  One click on www.maryhillmuseum.org and I knew dioramas of the Lewis and Clark expedition had just lost their priority.

A Little History

Remember old Sam Hill?  Well, he started a town and a palace out in the middle of nowhere and named both of them

Maryhill Museum, Maryhill WA, Columbia River Gorge
The view from Maryhill Museum.

after his wife Mary.  Then two things happened.  The town faltered and failed due to irrigation challenges and Mary never cottoned to the state of Oregon. (Perhaps it was because Maryhill was actually across the river in Washington!)  She visited for six months and then hightailed it home to Minneapolis with his two kids.

Well, I guess old Sam loved Oregon more than Mary, because he stayed, in spite of the failure of all his Maryhill plans.  He poured so much love into the state of Oregon that he actually died on his way to address the Oregon legislature.  However, one can’t help but wonder if there was more than a distaste for the wild west lifestyle that sent Mary back to Minneapolis.  The rest of the story of the museum is filled with a queen, a dancing legendess and a sugar-fortune wife who helped Sam turn his failed mansion into an irresistible jewel box for the general public.  There’s nothing to suggest that the crusty old Quaker was in any way improper with his lady friends, it’s just odd that they were so passionate about turning an out-of-the-way unfinished home into a museum.

Maryhill Museum, Maryhill WA, Columbia River Gorge
The Queen and I

Visiting the Museum

And what a museum!  Crown jewels, palace furnishings, modern sculpture, amazing photography and awesome paintings.  I thought we might spend an hour strolling through the house.  Instead we were there for hours, eating lunch in their snack bar and then returning to the collections.  The wild variety of things provides much of the charm.  The items also give an interesting panorama of life in the early twentieth century.  I won’t bore you with a laundry list of the collection.  The museums website can give you a good idea of what to expect, but I assure you, even when you know what you’re going to see, the impact of it is still startling.

A Replica of Stonehenge

But that’s not all.  Old Sam was quite the traveler.  (How else would he have met the

Stonehenge War Memorial, Columbia River Gorge
Sam’s Stonehenge

queen of Romania and a Parisian dancer?)  His pacifistic Quaker heart was burdened by the loss of young lives in World War I and during a visit to Stonehenge he decided to do something about it.  Back in those days prevailing scholarship believed Stonehenge was the site of human sacrifice (which shows you how much you can depend on the current prevailing scholarship) and Sam decided by building Stonehenge in the west he could draw a parallel between the useless loss of life in war.

Mount Hood, Columbia River Gorge
The view from Sam’s Stonehenge is a little more spectacular than the one on Salisbury Plains

So right down the road from Maryhill Museum, you can visit Stonehenge.  The World War I reference is not as poignant now that we better understand Stonehenge, but that does not decrease the wonder of standing among the standing stones of Maryhill, Washington.  The view of Mount Hood is pretty amazing, too.

So do go to Maryhill Museum of Art.  I’d say it was worth the trip even if everything else about the area wasn’t so sightseeing worthy.  I’ve put it close to the top of my list of favorite museums.  I can’t resist sharing some more shots with you – everything was just too gorgeous.  Come back next week for another slice of Oregon that you’ve probably never heard of, but will completely love.

Mount Hood from the Maryhill Museum snack bar balcony. The food was delicious!
Mount Hood from the Maryhill Museum snack bar balcony. The food was delicious!
SH5
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This picture proves that with a little irrigation at the right time, Sam's dreams might have come true, but then the world might be poorer by at least one museum.
This picture proves that with a little irrigation at the right time, Sam’s dreams might have come true, but then the world might be poorer by at least one museum.

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Tagged Attraction Review, Jane Sadek, Lifestyle Blog, Maryhill Museum of Art, Maryhill WA, Oregon, Road Trip Blog, Stonehenge War Memorial, Travel Blog, Travel There, Washington State3 Comments
Jane Sadek

Jane Sadek

Poet and storyteller. Wife and friend. Traveler and caretaker. Woman of faith.

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Categories

  • ART
    • Architecture
    • Decorative Arts
    • Fashion
    • Gardens
    • Libraries
    • Museums
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Photography
      • Real Estate Photography
  • DESTINATIONS
    • DFW Metroplex
    • International
    • Presidential
    • United States
  • TRAVEL
    • Accommodations
    • Attractions
    • Cruising
      • Shore Excursions
    • Restaurants & Bars
    • Road Trips
    • Shopping
    • Travel Books
    • Travel Planning
  • WRITING
  • Rockwall

Tags

Alexandria Egypt Arizona Attraction Review Austria AZ Budapest Cairo Egypt Cancun Mexico Celebrity Concierge Class Celebrity Cruise Lines Celebrity Edge Cesky Krumlov Chichen Itza Chihuly Club Med Punta Cana Columbia River Gorge Cruising Czech Republic Dallas TX DFW Metroplex Blog Dining at Club Med Egypt Egyptian Wedding Eureka Springs AR Fairmont Heliopolis Florence Italy Galveston TX Golden Gate Park Grand Bahama Hotel Review Hungary Jane Sadek Lifestyle Blog Louisiana Michigan Monte Carlo Nassau Bahamas Norwegian Epic Oklahoma City Museum of Art Oklahoma City OK Oregon Phoenix Photography Photo Organization Photo Organization Coach Portland OR Primarily Presidential Destinations Restaurant Review Road Trip Blog Royal Caribbean San Antonio San Antonio TX San Francisco CA Scottsdale Scrapbooking Scrapbooking Services Seadust Cancun Family Resort Sedona. Arizona Sharm El Sheik Egypt Shipboard Vow Renewal Shopping Review Shore Excursions St Louis MO St Thomas Texas The Anniversary Cruise Travel Blog Travel Bug Tales Travel Here Travel There Vienna Austria Viking River Cruises Viking Tor Vision of the Seas Wichita KS
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