The Cook Memorial Library has once again partnered with the MNCH to host a new traveling summer exhibit, Native Innovation: a celebration of the culture, history, and unique engineering of Oregon’s First Nations.

The oldest shoes that researchers have directly dated are a pair of 10,400-year-old sandals recovered from Fort Rock Cave in central Oregon, according to Thomas Connolly. Fossilized footprints suggest our ancestors may have worn them much earlier than that.

The spike-tooth salmon is said to have lived around five million years ago, when the Earth’s climate was warmer, the rivers of the Pacific Northwest were deeper, and microbes were plentiful.

A prized plant for regional Native Americans has been carefully cultivated for more than 3,500 years. Camas is a First Foods staple for Native Americans, who traditionally baked the bulbs in earthen ovens.

For many years, archaeologists thought the first humans to set foot in the Americas did so around 13,000 years ago. But more recently, new findings have challenged that theory, pushing the timeline back even further.

Many people assume that the devastating impacts humans have wrought on our planet came about with the industrial era, which began in the mid-1700s. But people have been transforming conditions on Earth for millennia. Looking backward can inform our journey forward.

Say goodbye to the saber-tooth salmon, and say hello to the spike-tooth salmon. Don’t be sad. The saber-tooth salmon hasn’t lost any of its fearsome appeal. But new research, including some striking illustrations by paleoartist Ray Troll, has revealed something new about its prehistoric piscine anatomy: The giant salmon Oncorhynchus rastrosus had a pair of spiked teeth that protruded straight out of the side of its skull, instead of the downward-pointing teeth scientists formerly thought it had.

About five million years ago, the North American Pacific Northwest was teeming with some pretty big fish that would have made the continent’s biggest salmon runs look small. An eight to 10-feet-long prehistoric salmon species called Oncorhynchus rastrosus stalked the seas and streams of the Miocene. It weighed upwards of 400 pounds and was almost twice as long and three times heavier than today’s largest salmon species–the Chinook/king salmon.

On Thursday, April 4, the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History Education Manager Mia Jackson unpacked the Native Innovation Museum Adventures traveling exhibit at its first stop in Grand Ronde.

The Museums for All access program is expanding in Eugene. Participating arts and cultural sites offer discounted or free entry to individuals and families with an Oregon Trail card.