Trip out on some vintage film

The upstairs gallery at the North Lincoln County Historical Museum has been transformed into a mini movie theater showing “Detours: Road Trips Through the Pacific Northwest,” a 21-minute loop of home movie footage shot on the Oregon Coast in the 1960s and 1970s.

The reel is edited together out of recently completed digital transfers of 8mm celluloid films that have been in storage for many years. These one-of-a-kind physical films show some of the first moving images of the Oregon Coast.

Since late 2021, museum staff have been carefully inspecting, cleaning and repairing more than 15,000 feet of 8mm and 16mm films and preparing them for archival storage. While going through them, they discovered promotional films advertising the Oregon Coast and hours of home movies filmed by local residents of their road trips, family gatherings and local events such as Fleet of Flowers.

A grant from the Siletz Tribal Charitable Contribution Fund made it possible to digitize the films and make them accessible to the world.

The clips included in the reel were shot up and down the Pacific coast from Vancouver BC, to Monterey, California. You will see Oregon Coast landmarks, tourist destinations, dirt highways, families playing on the beach and many other sights – some still familiar today, and some that are clearly historical.

This is the first time this small selection of rare films have been able to be viewed, and plans are in place to integrate additional portions of the footage into exhibits, provide the reels for researchers and make selections available online.

“Detours” will be shown through the end of the year at the North Lincoln County Historical Museum, located 4907 SW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City and open 11 am to 4 pm, Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, go to northlincolncountyhistoricalmuseum.org or call 541-996-6614.