Contributed by Janice Crane
Janice’s MBA in Nonprofit Management Story
When I completed my bachelor’s degree at the height of the Great Recession, I chose to go directly to graduate school to delay entering the workforce. My graduate assistantship was my first museum job. It was so much fun teaching people who wanted a fun learning experience, planning events, and handling historic objects and art! I decided to pursue museum work as a career.
Museum jobs were still scarce after graduating with my M.A., so I signed on to serve a year of AmeriCorps. That year of AmeriCorps changed my life. It brought me to Oregon, where I met wonderful lifelong friends, colleagues, and my now-husband, and included a financial award to spend on education. I was privileged to receive scholarships and family support for my first two degrees and had no student loans to apply the education award to, so I let it simmer for 6 years. When I remembered that I had one year to use-it-or-lose-it, I started to look around for new educational opportunities.
Having moved from Roseburg up to the Portland Metro Area and settled into steady full-time museum work, I looked for something that could help me take the next step in my career to management. I found the University of Portland MBA program and loved that it had in-person classes, a west side campus location, and a nonprofit management concentration. I liked the combination of standard business classes and nonprofit-specific content. Since my previous education experience was from liberal arts programs, I loved that the content included practical skills that were immediately applicable to my day-to-day activities.
Using the UP MBA in Nonprofit Management program to launch my career further worked! Halfway through the program, I landed my first Executive Director role at the Friends of the Cascade Locks Historical Museum. COVID hit only two months after I relocated to the Gorge with my family. The only upside was that the sudden switch to online learning meant that I was able to finish my MBA on time. I graduated in August 2020, and have been building up the Cascade Locks Historical Museum ever since.
As the first full-time employee of a previously volunteer run organization, I had to apply the entrepreneurial and management skills that I learned in the MBA program to get operations up to industry standards. I use the skills I learned in accounting, finance, negotiations, operation & technology management, socially responsible investing, and new venture creation coursework on a daily basis. The Friends of the Cascade Locks Historical Museum have undertaken significant growth very quickly, tripling our budget in my first two years. There is always something exciting happening.
My financial and leadership training have also been essential to my contributions to the board of directors of the Oregon Museums Association (OMA). The Oregon Museums Association empowers Oregon’s museums to thrive. Valuing inclusion and friendship, OMA strengthens connections throughout the Oregon museum community through lively discussion and networking at in-person events and via online media, insightful programming and training at our annual conference and workshops, and targeted advocacy to advance the museum field. OMA is partnering with the Western Museum Association for the 2022 annual conference, FORWARD, October 6-9, 2022 in Portland. Sponsorship opportunities are available now to get your brand in front of hundreds of museum professionals from around the Western United States.
Overlooking the remnants of the historic Locks and Canal, the Cascade Locks Historical Museum is housed in the only 1905 locktender house to retain its original floor plan and staircases.
About the Friends of the Cascade Locks Historical Museum
The Cascade Locks Historical Museum is a community history museum celebrating the people of Cascade Locks, Oregon. It was founded in the 1960s as an informal partnership facilitated by volunteer community historians, the Port of Cascade Locks, and the City of Cascade Locks. In 2013, community leaders banded together to form the nonprofit Friends of the Cascade Locks Historical Museum to advance the operation to the next level. Keep on the lookout for big changes as we grow, and support that growth by donating!
Cascade Locks is a really special place for a history museum. It is unusual for a town with a maximum population of 1,100 people to experience as many national-level historic events as Cascade Locks. The Cascades mountain range is named after a now-flooded stretch of rapids on the Columbia River. Long ago, a series of landslides blocked the river, forming the legendary Bridge of the Gods land bridge. Debris from the landslides made a 5 mile stretch of tumbling white water at this narrowest part of the Columbia River. These rapids were a vital salmon fishery and the banks along them are home to many Indigenous nations. Lewis & Clark’s Corps of Discovery camped at the Cascades, using the rapids as a landmark for later mapmaking. Oregon Trail immigrants rafted from The Dalles to the Cascades, got out to portage around the rapids, then continued on to the Willamette Valley. The first railroad in Oregon was built along this portage. Cascade Locks is home to the Oregon Pony, the first locomotive built on the West Coast. The gold rush brought incredible freight traffic aboard sternwheelers and trains, which lead to national legislation to break up corporate monopolies, which lead the Army Corps of Engineers to build the Cascade Locks and Canal for which the town is now named. The Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps built the historic Columbia River Highway straight through Cascade Locks. Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis underneath the Bridge of the Gods structure. The Army Corps of Engineers built the Bonneville Dam, and Cascade Locks was the first community to receive its hydropower. A WWII Conscientious Objector camp was built at Wyeth. The Columbia River Gorge was designated a National Scenic Area. The Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Bridge of the Gods into Washington. History happens here, and has shaped this incredible community into the special place you can visit today.
The Oregon Pony was the first locomotive built on the west coast. It is on exhibit year round in the Cascade Locks Marine Park, right next to the museum
The Cascade Locks Historical Museum is open seasonally from Spring Break through Halloween. It is open Thursday through Monday from 11am-5pm from March 19-October 31, 2022. Our current featured exhibit, The Rapid Changes of the Columbia, tells more in-depth the story of the construction and operation of the Cascade Locks and Canal. Located in a 1905 locktender house overlooking the Locks remnants, the museum is the only one of the three National Register of Historic Places buildings to maintain its original floorplan and stairs.
Visit Cascade Locks
Planning a day trip from Portland? Here’s my suggested itinerary:
(Note: No paid partnerships, I just like these places and support our local businesses)
- Skip the crowded waterfall corridor and take I-84 straight to exit 44 for Cascade Locks.
- Need breakfast? The Eastwind Drive-In’s croissant breakfast sandwiches are quick and delicious, or sit-down service is available at the Bridgeside Restaurant (formerly the Charburger). Just need a caffeine fix? The brown sugar cardamom latte from Thirsty Coffee Bar is my favorite treat.
- From the Bridge of the Gods, you can hop on the Pacific Crest Trail south for a 4 mile out-and-back hike to Dry Creek Falls, or take a paved stroll or bike ride along the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail to Eagle Creek and the Bonneville Dam. Dry Creek Falls has mechanisms built around the base that were part of the hydraulic operation system for the Cascade Locks and later part of the municipal water system. If you take the paved trail, you’ll traverse roughly the same path that the old portage road followed. The Tanner Creek Recreation Area at Bonneville Fish Hatchery is the site of the lower portage landing.
- After working up an appetite, try local seafood for lunch at Brigham Fish Market. I love the “smothered” ciabatta!
- Tour the Cascade Locks Historical Museum. Don’t miss the weird taxidermy in the basement and antique quilts, dolls, and mannequins upstairs. Say hi and let me know that you learned about us from the UP Grad Gazette!
- Take a walk around the Cascade Locks Marine Park, or take a ride on the Sternwheeler Columbia Gorge. The best night to ride the Sternwheeler is when we host “Magical History Tour,” the museum’s annual fundraiser, on board. The fundraiser is usually held on the first Friday in October.
- Chill out with a foot-tall soft serve ice cream cone from the Eastwind Drive-In, or a local beer at Thunder Island Brewing Company, Gorges Beer Co., or the Cascade Locks Ale House.
- Buy a Native-caught salmon to take home through traditional over-the-bank sales.
- Was that too much for one day? Stay the night at one of our locally owned and operated motels, like the Cascade Motel, or camp next to the museum in the Marine Park (travel trailer camping recommended, it’s also next to the train tracks).
Did you love your visit so much that you want to be neighbors? Bring your business to the Gorge! The Port of Cascade Locks has commercial real estate opportunities available immediately. From incubator space to industrial lease space and build-to-suit land opportunities, your business can grow here.