Central Oregon and Bend Oregon Calendar of Events
There is always something fun happening in Bend, Oregon. Central Oregon is home to a variety of year-round events from sporting and recreational festivities like the Cascade Cycling Classic and the Pole Pedal Paddle to an array of festivals like Balloons Over Bend, Bend's Bend WinterFest and Summer Festival, the Day of the Dead Cyclocross Festival, and free summer concerts at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.
Sin in the Sagebrush Exhibit
9/9/2010 9:00 PM
Category: Museum / Cost: $6 - $15High Desert Museum
59800 S Highway 97
Bend
OR
97702
541-382-4754
Understand how trappers, tracklayers, buckaroos, sheepherders and other workers’ dreams
were replaced with lonely, harsh lives, and how they found community and escape
in saloons, gambling halls and bordellos.
In this multi-sensory exhibit, you can step up to an 1880s roulette table,
game of faro, chuck-a-luck or poker, and take in the cheating devices and
refined attire of a professional gambler, as well as the bowie knife and
derringer he might use when challenged.
The exhibit also features live, authentic portrayals of those who worked at these
establishments, including the “sporting men” running the games
(they’ll invite you to play – and even reveal how to cheat). Ask the
saloonkeeper, and “working women” of the night how they fell into their
professions, and discover the human stories behind the stereotypes.
Become immersed in the atmosphere of the re-created Stockman Saloon, with its
oak and mahogany bar, polished nickel cash register and cut-glass bar bottles.
Illustrations of prize fighters, racehorses, the local militia, ladies, and a
gilt-framed oil of a nude adorn the walls. Piano tunes, gleaming kerosene
lamps, and the aroma of whiskey and cigars evoke the exuberant good times and
comforts which Western saloons offered to cold, weary patrons.
Curator of Western History Bob Boyd said, “You can imagine how the nameless men
of the frontier found refuge from toil, loneliness, boredom and unfulfilled
ambitions, and how they fulfilled their needs and desires. It is a humanities
theme as much as an historical account.”
Sin approaches this “old West” subject unlike any modern museum in the
American West, according to Bill Lang, chairman of the Department of Public
History at Portland State University. It will tour museums throughout the West
after the exhibit closes Sept. 26.
were replaced with lonely, harsh lives, and how they found community and escape
in saloons, gambling halls and bordellos.
In this multi-sensory exhibit, you can step up to an 1880s roulette table,
game of faro, chuck-a-luck or poker, and take in the cheating devices and
refined attire of a professional gambler, as well as the bowie knife and
derringer he might use when challenged.
The exhibit also features live, authentic portrayals of those who worked at these
establishments, including the “sporting men” running the games
(they’ll invite you to play – and even reveal how to cheat). Ask the
saloonkeeper, and “working women” of the night how they fell into their
professions, and discover the human stories behind the stereotypes.
Become immersed in the atmosphere of the re-created Stockman Saloon, with its
oak and mahogany bar, polished nickel cash register and cut-glass bar bottles.
Illustrations of prize fighters, racehorses, the local militia, ladies, and a
gilt-framed oil of a nude adorn the walls. Piano tunes, gleaming kerosene
lamps, and the aroma of whiskey and cigars evoke the exuberant good times and
comforts which Western saloons offered to cold, weary patrons.
Curator of Western History Bob Boyd said, “You can imagine how the nameless men
of the frontier found refuge from toil, loneliness, boredom and unfulfilled
ambitions, and how they fulfilled their needs and desires. It is a humanities
theme as much as an historical account.”
Sin approaches this “old West” subject unlike any modern museum in the
American West, according to Bill Lang, chairman of the Department of Public
History at Portland State University. It will tour museums throughout the West
after the exhibit closes Sept. 26.
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Visit Bend | 750 NW Lava Rd., Ste. 160 | Bend, OR 97701