In 2025, after a 12-year run downtown, the annual Archaeology Roadshow moved its educational and interactive showcase across the river to East Portland. For the second year, the organizers are taking over the grassy field at Gateway Discovery Park, 10520 NE Halsey Street, this May 30th with a theme of “Fire & Water.” Historians, members of universities, Tribes, government agencies, museums, and nonprofit cultural organizations will present over 30 exhibits at this free event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., sharing presentations and answering questions from inquisitive attendees. People can drop in anytime during the four-hour un-ticketed event. However, some presentations occur at specific times, including an opening “welcome blessing.”
This year’s Portland show features exhibits and hands-on activities demonstrating how fire and water are “fundamental to the human story for all times and places.” It features exhibits that showcase how the region’s Indigenous people engineered effective waterproofing technologies using materials crafted from the environment. People can practice using friction from a bow drill to build a fire, make stone tools, or throw a replica of an ancient spear. Attendees will also learn how ancient Ice Age floods shaped Portland landscapes in ways modern residents can still observe. Exhibitors will explain how Indigenous people and recent settlers managed water and fire to thrive in the watery and fire-prone Pacific Northwest region and expressed a deep connection to water and fire through arts and crafts.
Virginia Butler, with the Archaeology Roadshow, explained that the event’s name is a homage to the PBS series Antiques Roadshow, which invites people to bring items for expert evaluation. Students working on the inaugural Portland event wanted people to make the connection to the TV show because the Archaeology Roadshow similarly allows attendees to bring up to three objects for expert examination, with the experts attempting to determine the objects’ ages and possible functions. Unlike the TV show, volunteers at this event do not offer appraisals; they help people connect to the history contained in those objects. Presentations cover the full span of human existence in the region, and organizers try not to set date limits on what constitutes archaeology. “Science can tell us people have probably been in this area for over 15,000 years. But the Indigenous perspective suggests you can’t really put a time on it because some of their origin stories say they’ve been here forever,” said Butler.
The Archaeology Roadshow embraces all phases of human settlement in the region and aims to offer visitors an experience that entertains and informs them about that shared history through activities and face-to-face engagement. The Archaeology Roadshow began in 2012 at Portland State University, driven by the university’s desire to expose students to public outreach practices through a campus event. The yearly event expanded beyond Portland in 2017, when the roadshow opened in Harney County, with shows in Burns and Hines featuring regional exhibitors and historical societies. Post-pandemic, they have continued to expand into places like the Dalles and Bend.
Butler noted that the Archaeology Roadshow is more than an informative event. It is a valuable tool in connecting organizations and municipalities to understand the importance of historical preservation as communities grow. “This kind of work is really about relationships. The Archaeology Roadshow builds relationships at different levels between the organizations doing this work. Every time you start digging in the ground, you might open up and identify some archaeology. There’s a lot of effort to ensure that we don’t lose historical knowledge as we go forth with development.” The organizing group wants to convey the ethics and legal aspects of artifact collecting in context, its importance to people, and its significance beyond regulation. “We want to emphasize that when you simply dig into what may seem to be an archaeological site and remove objects, you’re losing the context. We lose our ability to understand the broader meanings of what those artifacts mean relative to each other. We’re also harming descendant communities that might have special connections to those places. So we convey some of the ethics and the legal aspects of collecting,” said Butler.
Overall, the roadshow project aims to expand people’s understanding of archaeology, a field often shaped by movies and school field trips. “I think most people think that archaeology is exciting; there’s an adventure and an explorer level to it. The Indiana Jones image is about finding things, and a lot of people think archaeology is a treasure hunt. I hope people come and realize it’s so much more than that. Archaeology is everywhere. History is happening everywhere. We are so much richer if we understand it, and we feel much more connected to a place if we understand its history,” said Butler. “People will walk in with one concept of archaeology, and then it’s going to get a lot bigger because of the cultural connections.”
Event organizers hope the Archaeology Roadshow’s move to East Portland has opened the event to more organizations and residents who do not always have the opportunity to engage with history in a hands-on, dynamic environment. Within the exhibits, guests will find people demonstrating skills, with the option to participate. Anyone interested in history will also find booths filled with people offering a museum’s worth of information, including Montavilla News contributor Patricia Sanders, who will join Paul Leistner from Mt. Tabor in sharing neighborhood history. Gateway Discovery Park is a fully accessible facility, and event staff will have translators available for Spanish speakers throughout the event so more people can participate in this community-enriching experience. The annual event is free and open to the public thanks to sponsorship support.
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Title image: Chinook Tribal members give opening drum song at the 2025 Portland Archaeology Roadshow with Portland City Council President Jamie Dunphy for District 1, left (Lucy Behrens)
