Description
Clackamas County Historical Society was established in 1952 and shortly thereafter began to accept historic objects, photos, and other donated materials from the local community. It became officially incorporated on March 30th, 1953. With humble beginnings, the CCHS collection increased considerably when founding member Mertie Stevens left her family’s home and numerous artifacts to CCHS in 1968. Afterwards the Stevens House Museum opened its doors as a heritage museum and officially put CCHS on the map.
As the collection continued to grow members soon realized that the preservation and interpretation of Clackamas County’s history required a modern museum building with trained staff. During the 1970s the Latourette family donated the land at the intersection of Second Street and Tumwater in Oregon City for the purposes of public enrichment, and later the site was selected for the new building. In 1985, construction began on the new museum space and on September 8, 1990 CCHS opened the End of the Trail Heritage Center, which underwent several name changes before settling on Museum of the Oregon Territory (MOOT) in 1999.
Since then our collection has only grown in size, now housing an estimated 30,000 artifacts including over 10,000 digitized photographs. Throughout its 70+ years of operation the Clackamas County Historical Society remains dedicated to enriching the lives of current and future generations through collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of Clackamas County.
