Find out how archaeologists and Tribal partners bring “fire and water” history to life in Gateway Discovery Park …
Booths, visitors and exhibitors fill Gateway Discovery Park as the 14th annual Archaeology Roadshow gets underway with its “fire and water” theme.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Archaeologists, Tribal representatives, museum staff, and volunteers turned Gateway Discovery Park into an open-air classroom on Saturday, May 30, when the 14th annual Archaeology Roadshow brought its 2026 theme, “The Archaeology of Fire & Water,” to East Portland.
Project leader Virginia Butler, a retired Portland State University professor of anthropology and archaeology, introduced herself as still strongly connected to the university. She helped guide visitors through the exhibits. She characterized the Roadshow as “a large-scale public celebration of archeology and history for the public” – built to meet people where they live – including this year’s stop in the Hazelwood at Gateway Discovery Park.
Project leader Virginia Butler pauses for a smile while welcoming visitors to the Archaeology Roadshow’s “fire and water” edition at Gateway Discovery Park.
Built by local partners
Butler emphasized that each Roadshow stop reflects the community hosting it. Rather than a traveling, one-size-fits-all exhibit, it pulls in local museums, contractors, Tribal cultural staff, and agencies doing on-the-ground work in that region.
She pointed out that partners in the project range from the National Park Service to the Burns Paiute Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, as well as private companies and museums that regularly work in archaeology and heritage fields.
“They are excited about what they do, and they want to share that information with the public,” Butler reflected, gesturing toward the rows of tables and demonstrations around the park.
Parkrose Community Archive founder Jada Krening shares how her former grad school project grew into an online hub to preserve and share Parkrose history.
Organizers counted about 30 exhibitors, with several hundred visitors circulating through the Roadshow over the course of the afternoon – with more expected, as the weather held and the park stayed busy.
How ‘fire and water’ became the theme
This year’s “fire and water” focus grew from a statewide planning effort involving Roadshow partners around Oregon. Butler recalled how the committee built a list of potential themes, narrowed it to about five “good ideas”, and then turned the final choice over to the Roadshow’s mailing list to decide.
The team sent the options to roughly 700 subscribers and asked them to vote. And “Fire and Water” won by a wide margin, Butler recounted, giving exhibitors a clear direction for their stories and hands-on demonstrations.
Holding a ‘strata bottle’, Chris Knutson of Dudek demonstrates how archaeologists study soil layers to uncover the area’s past.
Throughout the park, that theme surfaced in displays about the repeated “Missoula” Ice Age floods that scoured and shaped the Portland area, Indigenous technologies for waterproofing, and traditional ways of managing fire and water in the Pacific Northwest. Visitors watched and tried activities such as stone tool-making, spear-throwing and fire-starting demonstrations, all grounded in local archaeology.
Origin story: from classroom idea to statewide event
The Roadshow itself traced back to a 2013 public archaeology class Butler taught at PSU. She remembered walking into the first week of the course and challenging students: “What’s our project going to be?”
Students brainstormed possibilities on the chalkboard until the notion of a “fair” or “living museum experience” rose to the top. That first year’s event took place at OMSI, and the concept has grown steadily since then – adding partners and new locations as communities invited the Roadshow to their towns.
Now, the schedule stretches well beyond Portland. After the East Portland stop, Butler and her team planned Roadshow events in Bend, Burns, Southern Oregon near Ashland in August, and at The Dalles in November, each drawing on local stories and experts.
Adults and kids learn how to make replica stone arrowheads during a hands-on flintknapping demonstration.
Sparking curiosity – and stewardship
Asked what she hoped visitors would take away from a day at the Roadshow, Butler focused less on data and more on feeling.
“I think the best thing is to excite, and open up, people’s sense of excitement and curiosity about the past,” she reflected. In her view, lasting preservation grows from personal connection: When people feel curious and engaged, they are more likely to care for historic sites and cultural resources.
At times, Butler said, advocates lean on slogans: “Sometimes we just tell people preserve it, protect it, it’s important, we promise you.” Without a real connection to place or history, she added, it is hard to persuade anyone to change their behavior.
At the “Ask the Experts” table, archaeologist Bob Cromwell of the Bonneville Power Administration examines objects and answers visitors’ questions.
Her aim is to “dig into that, and get people excited about it, so that they themselves really understand why it’s important to protect and share the past”.
At Gateway Discovery Park, that approach seemed to be working. Families clustered around tables, kids tried hands-on activities, and adults lined up with bags and boxes containing bones, ceramics, and stone tools – eager to learn what stories those objects might hold.
You can learn more about the upcoming August 20 Archaeology Roadshow in Southern Oregon, and the November 14 Archaeology Roadshow in The Dalles, at their website: CLICK HERE.
On our Front Page: Edyth Thurber, a board member of the Geological Society of the Oregon Country, examines an artifact closely with a magnifying glass.
© 2026 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
