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22267 Oregon Highway 86, Baker City, 541-523-1843, oregontrail.blm.gov. 9 am–6 pm daily during summer. $8, children 15 and under free.
If you visit just one museum this summer to learn about the colonization of the Oregon Territory, make it Tamástslikt Cultural Institute (see page 24). If you visit two, try this federal facility, newly reopened last month after a three-year remodel. Perched on Flagstaff Hill above Baker City, the museum’s grand hall leads visitors into a replicated trip from Missouri to Oregon City, with dioramas and videos outlining the possible disasters: cholera, rapids, rattlesnakes, in descending order of terror. (Not as much attention is given to dysentery as The Oregon Trail video game would lead you to expect.) It’s a very similar user experience to a national park visitor center, although this site is run by the more maligned U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The location is worth visiting just for the panoramas of the Elkhorn Mountains, and an ideal day will include time for the 2-mile hike through sagebrush down to the wagon ruts that are still visible in the dust 150 years later.
Don’t miss: If you’ve traveled 300 miles to learn about the Oregon Trail, you ought to pair this museum with the Oregon Trail Interpretive Park at Blue Mountain Crossing, an hour up Interstate 84 near La Grande. It has more ruts (you’re welcome, History Dads), plus an easy walk through a gorgeous ponderosa forest.
Will kids like it? The ones who haven’t already been here on a school field trip should find it pretty compelling, what with the murders and the snakes. Plus, the museum hands out activity books that correspond to the exhibits.