January 6, 2009
Benson Memorial Museum
This may be the best museum in Oregon. The Benson Memorial Museum, which occupies a one-room building at headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge 30 miles south of Burns, may have official hours posted somewhere, but we've never found it closed. It doesn't charge admission. It doesn't have a staff. It doesn't have computers and video interpretations. In fact few people know its actual name.
What it does have is scores of old-fashioned stuffed bird specimens, mounted in cabinets and laid out in drawers, often with identification tags in decades-old handwriting. History and biology are intertwined here in a way that has been lost in too many other natural history museums. Seen a bird on the refuge you don't recognize? You can find it here. A great museum, actually, because it's musty and unpretentious and fascinating.
Please turn out the light and close the door when you leave.
Photo: Benson Museum display 2005
all text and images © 2005-06 by Bob Keefer
no reproduction allowed in any form without written permission