This came in as a press release but it sounds pretty cool. Sesquicentennial fun!

Westward Oregon! Celebrates Oregon’s 150th Birthday In May with 1859 Stagecoach Rides, Encampment and Dinner

In partnership with the Des Chutes Historical Museum and Bend Parks & Recreation, Deschutes County is proud to sponsor Oregon’s largest 150th birthday event. Westward Oregon! is a living history weekend to be held May 29 and 30 at Tillicum Ranch that includes 1859-era stagecoach rides, an encampment, and a pioneer-style dinner and dance that will take participants clear back to when the state was born!

The two-day celebration is designed to give local residents a flavor of what life was like in 1859 when Oregon became the 33rd state in the Union.

Westward Oregon will give participants exciting, hands-on experience of 1859 Oregon life through three educational and fun activities:

Territorial Express Stagecoach Rides
Traveling along historic roads between Sisters and Bend, participants can ride in a historic replica stagecoach and re-live travel 1859-style. Travel back in time and ride an authentic stagecoach through beautiful Deschutes County. Fares are $100 per passenger, $150 for “shotgun” seats. Seating is limited; please reserve your stagecoach passenger seats now.

Westward Oregon Encampment
For Deschutes County, permanent human settlement was nearly 30 years in the future. On both Friday (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) and Saturday (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.), historic Tillicum Ranch will be transformed into a tent encampment, complete with re-enactors and demonstrators who will help participants experience what life was like in an 1859 encampment. Admission to the encampment will cost families of four only $15! Mingle with soldiers and townspeople, watch wheelwrights, coopers, blacksmiths, spinners, and tailors practicing their trades. Pet a cavalry horse and visit with the stagecoach drivers and their mules.

The 1859 Evening of Nostalgia
The dinner and dancing benefit event starts at 6:00 p.m. and will feature costumed re-enactors and the music from 1859! Come with your own posse dressed in the styles of the era. Evening of Nostalgia tickets are priced at $70 per person for non-Museum members and $60 for members, please call for table discount rates. Take a scenic wagon ride around the Tillicum Ranch encampment at dusk. A few of the silent auction items include tickets to this year’s Pendleton Round-Up, two tickets to Happy Canyon and the event’s Friday round-up-including RV parking.

Proceeds from Westward Oregon! will help to support the Des Chutes Historical Museum and their efforts to restore and record local history.

For more information about Westward Oregon! please call 389-1813 or visit
www.deschuteshistory.org.