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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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History ‘pops up’ in Ridgefield, around county

By , Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter
Published:
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The Clark County museum hosted a &quot;pop-up museum&quot; project in the Pickled Heron Gallery in Ridgefield.
The Clark County museum hosted a "pop-up museum" project in the Pickled Heron Gallery in Ridgefield. (Steve Dipaola for the Columbian) Photo Gallery

RIDGEFIELD — Whether it’s a family portrait of a pioneer or an artifact from a long-gone era, history can pop up all over Clark County.

Now there is a museum program to match.

Several Ridgefield residents took part earlier this month in the first “pop-up” exhibit sponsored by the Clark County Historical Museum.

The Saturday, Sept. 5, event was the first step in a new outreach program for the museum, which is based in the former Carnegie library in downtown Vancouver.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do,” said Katie Anderson, the county museum’s executive director. “It’s something the staff has wanted to do. There are so many stories throughout the county to share and preserve.”

Several of those stories were brought to life in the one-day exhibit in the Pickled Heron Gallery, 418 Pioneer St.

Tami Main, who was wearing a reproduction of a woman’s dress from the 1870s, brought several antiques and family treasures. They included a 155-year-old photograph of her great-great-great grandmother. Anna Johnson Larson came to this country from Denmark in 1860.

“I think the picture was taken soon after she arrived,” said Main.

After spending some time in Missouri, the family settled in Clark County, where Anna Johnson Larson raised 14 children.

Main, 44, said she first saw the portrait when she was a little girl, and she views the woman in the carved wooden frame as an old friend.

“She looks just like my grandfather,” said Main. It kind of makes sense, since “she’s my grandfather’s grandmother.”

Some people think the woman in the photograph looks a bit stern. From Main’s perspective, “It tells you she had a hard life.”

Museum curator Brad Richardson said that the historical group is discussing bringing another “pop-up” event to Ridgefield in December.

“This was a practice run,” he said.

Richardson also led a history walk through downtown Ridgefield as part of the Sept. 5 program. Future history walks will be scheduled in Ridgefield, as well as in other communities in Clark County, Richardson said.

And there is more history in the future, Anderson said.

“Down the road, we might partner with Ridgefield on interpretive signs,” the museum’s executive director said. “Grants are available for panels, and we could do the research.

“We have exhibits we’ve shown in the past that can travel. We’d like to show them around the county, whether it’s in libraries or in city halls. It’s a way to bring people together.”

Tom Vogt: 360-735-4558; www.twitter.com/col_history; tom.vogt@columbian.com

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Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter