Dorothy Mason wasn’t sure why she needed her vacuum cleaner for the grand opening of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

But she, along with fellow BLM staff, brought their vacuums along to celebrate the center’s ribbon-cutting on May 25, 1992.

Turns out the BLM didn’t have a cleaning contract yet, so Mason and her co-workers needed to help sweep up after the festivities.

“And so we did,” she says.

This Thursday, many of the same people are returning to help the center celebrate its 25th anniversary.

Festivities are planned for 9 a.m. to noon. Speakers include former Gov. Barbara Roberts, who was in office when the center opened; Randy Guyer; Dave Hunsaker, the center’s project manager and its first director; and Don Gonzalez, current manager of the BLM’s Vale District.

Special performances will follow by Joyce Badgley Hunsaker as “Fanny,” the pioneer woman character she created, and music by Hank Cramer & Friends.

Admission to the center is free on Thursday.

A Governor’s Challenge

In the late 1980s, the center grew out of a challenge from Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, who wanted every county to design a regional strategy to boost economic development.

Guyer attended a meeting at US Bank in Baker City to brainstorm ideas.

“One of the ideas that came out of that was an interpretive center for the Oregon Trail,” he said.

Around the same time, enthusiasm was ramping up to celebrate the Oregon Trail’s sesquicentennial — a fancy word for a 150th anniversary.

In October 1988, the BLM became the official agency to oversee design and construction of the center.

“We couldn’t have built a center ourselves,” Guyer said.

Dave Hunsaker was hired in 1989 as project manager for the center construction and he later became its first director, a position he held for nine years.

He said the Interpretive Center is a unique example of a partnership between private citizens and a government agency.

“It’s the best example in the entire BLM system of a cooperative effort,” Hunsaker said. “It wouldn’t be where it is if not for this community.”

Twenty-five years later, it is that partnership that Mason remembers.

“This was something everybody thought was a good idea,” she said. “Everybody did their part to make it go. It didn’t feel like a BLM project — it felt like a community project.”

To promote the project, the Oregon Trail Preservation Trust was formed in 1989 as a private nonprofit entity to handle fundraising, as well as to lobby Congress for federal money.

“We had very, very good congressional support,” Guyer said. “It was a full-time job — we were politicking and getting stuff done all the time.”

During that time, Baker City Realtor Mike Nelson represented Baker County in the Oregon Legislature.

Around the same time, Oregon City and The Dalles were also working on their own Oregon Trail centers, and Guyer recalls attending a state meeting in The Dalles to discuss the various centers.

“The leaders from the other centers wanted us to slow down so they could catch up,” he said. “We shook hands — then went home and outdid them.”

One aspect of the center’s design is credited to Mark Hatfield, former Oregon governor and the state’s longtime U.S. senator. Upon a visit during construction, Hatfield suggested a floor-to-ceiling window in the main gallery that provided a panoramic view of Baker Valley.

The design was changed, and a plaque nearby designates it as “Hatfield’s Window.”

“It was the right thing to do, without a doubt,” Hunsaker said.

Hatfield died in 2011.

Trail Tenders Play Vital Role

The Trail Tenders formed in 1989 as an nonprofit group to support the Interpretive Center by raising money and providing volunteers for various jobs, projects and special events.

Oregon Trail Interpretive Center: By The Numbers

• TOTAL VISITORS: 2,266,961 (through mid May)

• 1 millionth visitor: July 1996

• 2 millionth visitor: July 2010

• most visitors, by year: 1993 — 347,981

(This was the 150th anniversary of the first major migration on the Oregon Trail. There were several special events that year, and the Oregon-California Trails Association had its annual meeting in Baker City.)

• most visitors, by month: July 1993 — 71,362