Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum — Attraction in The Dalles

I so enjoyed my visit to this museum today! A must stop for anyone traveling through the area, as it encompasses information about the area from the Ice Age period, through the native peoples, past and present, and Lewis and Clark. I especially enjoyed the Wasco County Museum section. All of their exhibits are varied and informative, and they have worked very hard to make everything "Covid proof" during this period of time. The friendly lady at the desk was very helpful in helping me understand the voyage of the Chatham after Grey's exploration at the mouth of the Columbia. I did question two items though... the page about the size of the Nebraskan Camel in the Ice Age section, and the date of the painting by Eliza Barchus of Multnomah Falls... would love if the curator could look into these 🙂 As it appears my photos with descriptions did not post, let me elaborate... the Nebraskan Camel was stated to be 12 feet tall, yet the illustration comparing him to a camel of today makes it look like our camels are only 4 feet tall. If you didn't read the print, the illustration makes the Nebraskan Camel look 25 to 30 feet tall. Which is it? Then the painting is labeled "Multnomah Falls, 1898"... I don't believe this is correct because the bridge was not built until 1914. Ms. Barchus lived from 1857 to 1959 so residing in Portland, I'm sure she very well saw the...

Thinking about a wedding venue at this place? Well continue reading to know what you’re getting yourself in to. This staff member Tiffany has absolutely zero customer service skills. For example this discovery center facility lost their AC for the entire building, her idea of customer service was to threaten my daughter by offering to cancel the service or just deal with no AC. Ok seriously 2 weeks before the wedding and this person Tiffany likes to play with emotions instead of trying to console or any single ounce of compassion. Tiffany is so great with customer service, she just keeps up the contract threat right up until we load our final belongings after the ceremony. So seriously think about what you would want for a wedding memory, this pathetic excuse for customer service, or someplace that wants you to have an enjoyable memorable experience! Oh ya, I was even allowed to write this review because they had my daughter so worried they would cancel the ceremony because they could cause it was “in their contract”....

Not family friendly! After driving for hours with our five young kids they were really looking forward to going to the museum as a last stop along our trip. By the time we got inside the building it was 4:48 already and I hadn’t realized that it was about to close at 5pm until the lady at the front counter told us. My kids were all sad that we couldn’t go in. I asked the lady if we could just go inside one room briefly for ten minutes, just so the kids could see a little of the exhibit. She said we would have to pay the full price if we did. Really…pay full price for two adults and five kids just for 10 minutes? Where has customer service gone? No offer of any kind of discount. There was no one else even there. We had been there once before three years ago and my girls had fond memories of it, however this time getting turned away like that left us all disappointed. We would have so appreciated just 10 minutes, I know it would have lifted my kids’ spirit. Now we are hesitant to return if this is how they act...