The Port of Kalama last week held a grand opening event for its Kalama Transportation Interpretive Center, which has a museum and new port offices at 110 W. Marine Drive.
The 13,500-square-foot center was designed by Collins Architectural Group of Longview to resemble a traditional waterfront warehouse from the 1800s, reflecting on the area’s past as a commercial and transportation hub. It houses cultural artifacts, memorabilia and replicas in 4,200 square feet.
Some of the items on display are a canoe carved from a cedar log by Cowlitz artisan Robert Harjeu, an Oregon Trail-style covered wagon, a 1929 Model AA Ford truck and a replica of the Tacoma, a late-19th-century railroad ferry.
“Kalama has such a rich history and this Interpretive Center will illuminate how really distinctive our past is and how our roots in commerce and transportation have created what we are today,” said Port of Kalama Commission President Alan Basso in a news release. “Those assets continue to draw international business to the region. Much of what made Kalama replete and thriving in the past still holds true today.”
The project was built by Berschauer Group under a $4.5 million contract
Story by Daily Journal of Commerce, November 14, 2014.
