Cowlitz County Historical Society

Our Mission

The Cowlitz County Historical Museum stewards, preserves, and shares the physical and cultural heritage of our community through stories, collections, and perspectives.

Our Story

The CCHM has existed since 1953 and serves as an archival resource for the heritage of Cowlitz County.  Through the use of the museum’s artifacts, stories of our history are brought to life utilizing exhibits, storytelling, and educational programming.  The museum’s artifact collection serves as a core element to its function.  Preserving the collection of objects is paramount to sustaining the ability of future generations to learn from the material culture cared for by the museum.  We are in the process of completing a new collections storage shelving project which will bring our capabilities of artifact stewardship to an elevated level.

What We Do

The museum engages our community utilizing its artifacts as core instruments of interpretation.  We utilize our educational collections in the “Traveling Trunk” school program which brings history to the classroom.  Last year we held 62 educational programs in schools reaching hundreds of students, including many summer school programs.  Our artifacts form the nucleus of our permanent exhibit galleries and support public engagement programming.  We serve our community as a public benefit by engaging children in the richness of our local history at no cost to local schools, free adult evening programs, free family programming, and free admission to the museum.  Support of this artifact preservation project will directly champion the museum’s mission of service to our community.