Fort Vancouver National Historic Site hosts Photography Exhibit and Talk on Rogue River War Sites

Photographer Rich Bergeman is the guest curator of an exhibit in the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center, 1501 E. Evergreen Blvd., Vancouver. The photography exhibit will run from April 24-Sept. 25 in the visitor center’s theater. Bergeman will give a public talk at 1 p.m. May 20, “The Land Remembers: Landscapes of the Rogue River Wars.” Both the exhibit and talk are free, but reservations are recommended for the talk; sign up at friendsfortvancouver.org. After the talk, Bergeman will sign copies of his book, available to buy at the Friends of Fort Vancouver Bookstore, also located in the Visitor Center.

The exhibit features a dozen black and white infrared photographs from Bergeman’s two-year project exploring Southern Oregon in search of landscapes where the Rogue River Indian Wars took place in the 1850s. One of the least remembered and yet bloodiest of the Oregon Territory’s Indian wars, the conflicts ranged over rugged territory between the Rogue River Country and the South Coast between 1851 and 1856. As settlers and miners streamed in, the Tribes who lived there suddenly found their way of life under threat. The conflict ended with the forced removal of the Tribes to coastal reservations at Siletz and Grand Ronde in 1856 in Oregon’s “Trail of Tears.” More details can be found at More at nps.gov/fova/learn/news/richbergeman.htm.