About

Formed in 1990, the Center for Columbia River History is a consortium of the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University and Washington State University Vancouver. CCRH conducts interdisciplinary research projects, publishes material in text and electronic formats, sponsors free public programs and teacher workshops, and develops curricula. It collaborates with other historical and cultural institutions and offers programs to schools, libraries, historical societies and public groups throughout the Columbia River Basin, a region that includes territory in seven states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah) and one Canadian province (British Columbia).

Mission

The mission of the Center for Columbia River History (CCRH) is to promote the study of Columbia River Basin history. CCRH is dedicated to examining the hidden histories of the Basin and to helping people think about the historical record from different perspectives through creative public history products and direct engagement with Columbia River Basin communities.

Center for Columbia River Initiatives

Three overlapping initiatives encompass what CCRH considers its most important intellectual and community-based work: the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Native Communities in the Columbia Basin, and the Columbia River and the World. These initiatives currently focus the content and perspectives of our public programs, curriculum development, website development, and teacher workshops, and provide synergy for other activities.

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Initiative

The Fort Vancouver National Historic Site (FVNHS) consists of 366 acres of urban open space, historic structures, and reconstructed buildings that reflect the histories of the Hudson's Bay Company and the U.S. Army in the Pacific Northwest. The site includes the National Park Service's Fort Vancouver, Pearson Air Museum, Officer's Row, the Water Resources Education Center, and the offices of CCRH. This unique site offers rich interpretive possibilities that range from pre-contact and the fur trade period to World War II and beyond. CCRH offers public history expertise and interprets the site's historic themes through research, publication in print and online, and through involvement with site partners and interpretive projects. CCRH also develops and implements educational public programming, provides teacher training, and promotes CCRH and FVNHS offerings. As the only State of Washington partner on the site, CCRH staff engages with FVNHS committees, including the Education, Special Events, Long Range Planning, and Partner's committees.

Native Communities of the Columbia Basin Initiative

The region's Native people have an historic relationship with the Columbia River and its tributaries that persists into the present. CCRH enhances the public's understanding and knowledge of Native history as well as the historical roots of contemporary Native issues in the Columbia River Basin through conferences, public programs, curricular materials, and web exhibits. CCRH creates opportunities for Native and non-Native experts to engage in conversations with one another and the larger public. Center staff develops educational public programs and products in collaboration with Native communities that enliven the Native past and mark the continuity of Native people in the Basin. CCRH is committed to working with tribal governments and individuals in a spirit of partnership that recognizes cultural and political sovereignty.

The Columbia River and the World

The Center for Columbia River History recognizes the global historical context, which has both shaped the Basin and its peoples and provided a meeting place for the river and the wider world. Global migrations brought the earliest human populations to the Pacific Northwest region from the Pacific Rim. Thousands of years later, the river and its coastal and land connections provided the setting for encounters between Native populations and other peoples of the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Trade, labor, technology, environmental change, world wars, agriculture, industry, treaties, and migration were among the significant forces of change that continued to unfold in this wider global context after 1500. CCRH seeks to place Columbia Basin history into a global context through its public programs, curriculum materials, and other publications, believing that a wider lens connects transformations in a small part of the world to national and global political and economic forces.

For more information about CCRH, please feel free to contact us.