MUSEUM PROJECTS AND EXHIBITS! The Cracker Creek Museum of Mining has become a landmark here in Sumpter, Oregon thanks to the hard work and diligence of our board of directors and members of the museum and our generous donors. We feel CCMM has become a vital part of our local Sumpter Museums. And like most museums, we realize how important it is to work diligently to achieve our goals and plans that will ensure our growth and continue to provide a source of gold mining history and to preserve the local historic heritage for visitors to Sumpter. With our latest donations received over this past year, we are pleased to announce we are near completion of Phase One. Of course, that would include bringing the Monighan down to the museum site and we hope to have this happen this summer. Member Mark Henderson is working on a grant with the Geld-Wen Foundation which should pretty much fulfill our financial need for completion of Phase One.   See Monighan photos here! Now that we have a sizeable outdoor collection of mining artifacts and equipment, we are planning to construct kiosks that will allow for self-guided tours. These kiosks are also important for the interpretation of each exhibit. We hope to have an outdoor visitors area ready this summer including a picnic area with tables and perhaps a bbq and parking area for museum visitors. Our next construction project at the museum site will be a much needed restoration shop which will include a museum office and storage for the blacksmith collection. This shop will be important for the CCMM to implement its mining artifacts and equipment restoration projects. CCMM President Nils Christensen and member Mark Luker have been working on plans to offer interpretive tours of historic hard rock mining areas in the Sumpter Valley. These tours would be available to CCMM visitors. Tours would include schools and groups. In additon, it has been discussed that a self-guided tour map could be developed for visitors who wish to explore our historic Sumpter gold mining areas on their own. See photos here! A future project that we have been discussing is to construct a building on the museum site to house a gold mining history exhibit which will include a museum gift shop, visitors center and restrooms. This is an ambitious project to include an underground gold mine recreation that visitors will be able to enter and get a genuine feel for being in a gold mine. We expect this will be a big draw to the public and good for our local Sumpter Museums. MUSEUM EXHIBITS What makes Sumpter Museums special to our visitors is the unique exhibits that we have been fortunate to collect over the years. The CCMM has been especially fortunate to receive so many generous donations of historic gold mining equipment that makes our museum so interesting and worthwhile to visit. We are equally fortunate to have board members and volunteers that have the mechanical knowledge and time to help restore some of the equipment to working order. And this year our most ambitious exhibit will come to life....The Monighan Dragline. Late Summer 2005 we were pleased to receive word that the CCMM has been awarded an additional grant of $1214. for the Monighan moving project making a total of $5200. in grants received from The D.E. and Jane Clarke Foundation. The support we are receiving from this foundation is very important to the overall project and for which The CCMM is very grateful! Member Archie Titus has fabricated the new bearing caps to replace the ones taken from the dragline years ago. As soon as these new parts can be installed, we will pour new babbitt in the bearings. Last summer we had a Cat Engine loaned to us by the Borgen Family that will power the Monighan for its short walk to the museum site. CCMM President Nils Christensen and member Leonard Bacon worked hard to restore the engine to working order. They are now fabricating new engine mounts and adjusters. See photos here! NEW EXHIBITS We continue to add to our list of gold mining artifacts and equipment at the musuem and display them for public viewing as we work on restoration plans. We have been very proud to receive a heavy blacksmith collection from Western Oregon which was acquired over the past three years by grants from the D. and J. Clark Foundation and the Leo Adler Community Foundation. Summer 2005, Dan Warnock of Warnock Ranches in the Sumpter Valley invited the CCMM to look at some old mining equipment he thought we might be able to include in the museum. We were excited to find the equipment was a large tromel screen and conveyor with a feed hopper. It turns out this equipment belonged to Rody Harris who was one of the principle partners in the Northwest Development Co. and owner of the Monighan. If any of these projects above interest you and you would like to volunteer or become a member of Cracker Creek Museum of Mining, please contact us here: info@sumpteroregongold.org top of page Cracker Creek Museum of Mining 2465 18th Street Baker City, Oregon 97814 (541) 523-3381 Home |About Us |Monighan |Projects |Photos |History |Membership |Links |