Wagons circled Geiser-Pollman Park on Saturday, June 10, 2023 for the first Oregon Trail Days organized by the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

BAKER CITY — Art and history will come together in 2024 thanks to a partnership between the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and Crossroads Carnegie Art Center.

Crossroads, said executive director Ginger Savage, will operate the center’s gift shop, manage all marketing, and assist with programming when it reopens in May 2024. NHOTIC has been closed since November 2020, initially due to the pandemic, and then, starting in 2022, for a major renovation to make the building more energy efficient.

The group that will assist at the center is called Friends of NHOTIC.

“Friends groups like this one foster community partnership and pride in the resources we manage,” said Shane DeForest, acting manager for the BLM’s Vale District, which manages the center. “I look forward to seeing this relationship blossom, cultivating the next generation of land stewards and Oregon Trail enthusiasts and creating jobs in our community.”

Savage said Crossroads will hire a gift shop manager, and staff at the art center in Baker City will be cross-trained to fill in when needed. Also, Crossroads will provide support for the center’s Flagstaff Gallery, the Leo Adler Theatre, the outdoor amphitheater and the Wagon Box Theatre, which will be remodeled for arts and culture demonstrations.

“We’re super excited about it,” Savage said. “This allows us to continue to do the important work we do at Crossroads, help further the mission of NHOTIC, and expand arts and culture activities in our community.”

In addition to providing another source of revenue for the center, Savage said the partnership will boost a local presence at NHOTIC with local and regional artwork and other items in the gift shop that reflect Baker County.

“They’ll be keepsakes,” she said.

She said Crossroads will also offer programs at the Interpretive Center.

“We can expand our offerings without building another building,” she said.

She’s also working on ideas for providing limited food and drink options at the center.

Discussions to expand the Crossroads partnership began after Trail Tenders, the center’s primary friends group since the center opened in 1991, disbanded in late 2022.

“Crossroads has huge shoes to fill as we take over the friends role at NHOTIC from the Trail Tenders,” Savage said. “What a beloved organization and their wonderful volunteers who supported NHOTIC. We hope to be as successful as the Trail Tenders were.”

NHOTIC’s reopening on Memorial Day weekend of 2024 will coincide with Crossroads’ opening of Gary Ernest Smith’s show titled “Towards Home: The People, Places and culture of Eastern Oregon.”

Smith painted the iconic image for the poster of the opening of the National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center at Flagstaff Hill in 1992. The original is in the permanent collection of the Booth Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.

“We’re super excited about it. This allows us to continue to do the important work we do at Crossroads, help further the mission of NHOTIC, and expand arts and culture activities in our community.”

— Ginger Savage, executive director, Crossroads Carnegie Art Center