ENTERPRISE — Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center and Wallowa Resources are sponsoring the 18th annual Woodlands & Watersheds Festival on Friday, June 24, at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds, 668 NW First St.
The festival runs from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
More than 25 local and regional organizations will be onsite with hands-on activities. There will also be a free hot dog lunch for kids, trout fishing ponds, logging games, a live blacksmith demonstration, art activities, a scavenger hunt, firefighter games, food and live music by Buffalo Kin, Kelly Bosworth and more Wallowa County musicians.
A meal of Dutch oven pork or chicken, plus four different side dishes, will be served for $10 to support the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, which is located at 103 N. Main St. in Joseph.
“There’s a lot going on,” said Gwendolyn Trice, executive director of the interpretive center.
To learn more about the festival, go to www.wallowaresources.org/woodlands-watersheds-festival-2022.
About Maxville
Maxville, located in Wallowa County about 13 miles north of the town of Wallowa, was once home to about 400 residents. In its heyday, between 1924 and 1933, it was the largest town in the county.
Maxville was a timber town but, unlike most timber towns, it was home to both Black loggers and white loggers. Approximately 40 to 60 Blacks lived and worked in Maxville.
Economic conditions led to Maxville’s decline and in 1933 the Bowman-Hicks Lumber Company closed its operations. Some of the residents settled in the nearby town of Wallowa. A few stayed at Maxville to work in what remained of the timber industry until a severe winter storm in the mid 1940s caused most of the remaining structures to collapse. After that Maxville became a ghost town.
Some 60 years later, the children and grandchildren of the original logging families began researching the history of the town and uncovering the stories of their ancestors. This effort led to the founding of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center.
To learn more, visit www.maxvilleheritage.org.
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