Center for Columbia River History

The Center for Columbia River History was created in 1990. It was a consortium of the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University, and Washington State University, Vancouver, and offered quality history programs about the Columbia River Basin to the general public. It cooperated with other institutions in the Columbia River area to promote research, develop curriculum, teach special courses, publish materials in electronic and text formats, and present public programs about the Basin. Directors of the Center included Katrine Barber and Donna Sinclair.

The Center for Columbia River History was created in 1990. It was a consortium of the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University, and Washington State University, Vancouver.

In 1997, the Center for Columbia River History (CCRH), a regional consortium of the Washington State Historical Society, Washington State University, and Portland State University received funding from the U.S. Department of Education for the Columbia River Basin Project (CRBP). The Center for Columbia River History promotes broad public discussions about Columbia River Basin History and its connection to the present. To do so, the organization applies critical historical methodology, engages directly with Columbia River Basin communities, and through special projects, creates educational public history products on-line, in print, and through public educational programs.

The CCRH Columbia River Basin Project was a three-pronged project that included two oral history components. The first was through the Columbia River Dissenter's Project at the oral history office in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library. The second was through collecting oral histories to create community history web exhibits at the offices of the Center for Columbia River History. The third prong of the CRBP, a curriculum project conducted through Stevenson High School, did not focus on oral history.

The Oregon Historical Society component of the Columbia River Basin Project produced 59 interviews. The Columbia River Dissenters Project focused on groups and individuals who organized and acted in opposition to or with a different vision of management of the Columbia River than officials such as the Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. OHS staff member Clark Hansen, directed by oral historian Dr. James Strassmaier, interviewed key individuals who contributed to the shaping of policies that have had and continue to have enormous effect on the region. Research assistants from Portland State University, Dannette Rowe and Tania Hyatt, contributed to the project through their work in the oral history office at the Oregon Historical Society.

The Columbia Communities Project through the Center for Columbia River History office focused on the histories of eight selected communities on the Columbia River: Camas, Washington (7 interviews); Columbia Basin Native Fishery; Columbia Slough, Oregon (23 interviews), Cottage Grove, Oregon (11 interviews); Crewport, Washington; Moses Lake, Washington; Sandpoint, Idaho (4 interviews); Umatilla, Oregon (14 interviews). The project explored how communities - whether defined by work, family, culture, persistence, or place - were impacted by dam building from the mid-to-late twentieth century. The 59 interviews conducted for the Camas, Columbia Slough, Cottage Grove, Umatilla, and Sandpoint Community History Projects are housed at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library. Additional interviews conducted for Moses Lake, Washington and Sandpoint, Idaho in an earlier phase (1996 NEH grant) of the project are held at appropriate repositories in Washington State and Idaho. Those collected after funding by the Department of Education in 1997 are held at the Oregon Historical Society. Interviews collected for Crewport, Washington are held by Yakima Valley Community.

Interviews for the Camas, Columbia Slough, Cottage Grove, Umatilla, and Sandpoint Community History web sites were collected by Center for Columbia River History staff, graduate students, volunteers, and Portland State University students. Kathy Tucker was responsible for conducting the majority of interviews for the Camas project, and she assisted Katrine Barber in collecting interviews for the Cottage Grove and Sandpoint projects. Donna Sinclair was responsible for collecting the majority of interviews for the Umatilla project and for collecting and directing (with Katrine Barber) student interviewers in the Columbia Slough project. Individual interviewers are identified in this finding aid.