OFFICIAL INTERPRETIVE CENTER OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE NATIONAL SCENIC AREA
5000 Discovery Drive, The Dalles, OR97058 · 541.296.8600 ·
Contact: Susan Buce, Marketing Manager • Ext. 215 •
PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release
Date: February 5, 2016
Contact: Susan Buce, Marketing Manager, 541-296-8600 ext. 215
SUMMARY
Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum opens a new traveling exhibit, Finding Fremont, Pathfinder of the West, Saturday, Feb. 20. Bill Cossitt will talk at 1 p.m. about the search for Frémont’s howitzer, abandoned in the Sierra Nevada winter of 1844. The talk and exhibitwith artifacts and relics, including the howitzer,are included with museum admission. A members-only sneak peek will be held Friday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. For information, visit
Finding Frémont exhibit opens
THE DALLES— Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museumopens a new traveling exhibit, Finding Frémont: Pathfinder of the West,Saturday, February 20. The exhibit follows the 1843-44 travels of Lt. John C. Frémont on his famous expedition to map the Pacific Northwest.
Saturday’s opening includes a 1 p.m. program by Bill Cossitt who will talk about the search for Frémont’s howitzer abandoned January 29, 1844 in the Sierra Mountains.
The Frémont Howitzer Recovery Team members are mostly professional surveyors, engineers, archeologists and lawyers, many whom have dedicated some thirty to thirty-five years to the search for items from Fremont’s second expedition to the west.
The exhibit will be included with paid museum admission.
A members-only sneak peek will be held Friday, February 19, with dinner at 6 p.m. followed by a presentation with Loren Irving at 7 pm. Irving produced a documentary tracing Frémont's trail, and many of his landscape photos are included in the exhibit. The dinner menu is breaded baked cod with lemon dill butter, rice pilaf, spinach salad, rolls, double chocolate brownies. The dinner is $20, and members should RSVP by February 17.
An unlikely hero and colorful character, Lt. John C. Frémont’s expeditions surveyed and mappedthe Oregon Trail and beyond, launching him to fame, infamy, fortune, and a bid for president of the United States of America.
Developed in partnership with the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, the exhibit features archaeological evidence of the party’s route, artifacts on loan from seven different collections, and the Fremont howitzer abandoned in the Sierra Nevada winter of 1844.
Guided by Kit Carson and accompanied by German-born cartographer and illustrator Charles Preuss, Fremont conducted the first of two surveys from mid-June to mid-October of 1843.
Frémont and Carson stopped at the Wascopam Mission (now The Dalles) in the fall of 1843. There they took on a teen-aged Native boy, “Billy Chinook,” who desired to see the states.
After thoroughly exploring much of the Pacific Northwest, the expedition went southward into Mexican-controlled territory. They first went through what is now northwestern Nevada and then made a perilous westward winter crossing of the Sierra Nevada to California, reaching Fort Sutter on the Sacramento River in March 1844.
For more information about Finding Frémont: Pathfinder of the West,call 541-296-8600 ext. 201 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm daily or go online at
Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum is the official interpretive center for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Hands-on, multi-media exhibits illuminate the cultural and natural history of the Gorge, including Ice Age geology, Native American culture, Lewis and Clark, the Oregon Trail, trade, transportation, renewable energy, ecology, live raptor presentations and more. The museum is wheel-chair accessible, and family friendly, with a Kids Explorer room. Riverfront Trail offers hiking and biking, and a native plant nature trail circles the pond next to the museum. The Discovery Center is located off I-84 exit 82, at 5000 Discovery Drive, The Dalles, Oregon, 97058. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum adult admission is $9, seniors $7, kids 6 to 16 are $5, and children 5 and under free. Live raptorpresentations are held on Saturdays and Sundays. The Columbia River Trading Company museum store is open daily. For more information, phone (541) 296-8600 ext. 201, or visit