Portland between the Helvetia Road and Jackson School Road exits. Situated on of mostly forested land, the museum is housed in the historic Richard and Helen Rice House, built as a single family residence. Completed in 1952, the home was built of Arizona flagstone on the exterior and wood native to Oregon, including curly maple and myrtlewood. William F. Wayman designed the structure with Victor Batchelar building the home, while Charles F. Walters designed the grounds. All the wood was logged by Richard Rice, who made his living as a logging contractor. He also milled the wood. The home was designed to allow the basement to serve as a museum for the Rices' collections. The structure contains three sandstone fireplaces, and the countertops are finished with hand-painted tiles from Mexico. Myrtlewood is used inside as trim and for doors. Bedroom closets were constructed with drawers, shelves, and ironing boards built-in. Inside the two-level building are amenities such as dumbwaiters and a sewing room. On the outside raked cedar was used on the eaves of the low-pitched roof-line building. The exterior sandstone is tan, rose, and blue in color. The home with a basement cost $185,000 to build. Flooring in the museum was replaced in 2021 after a detrimental flood. The original blue linoleum in the basement that features the museum's logo of a shovel and a pick were preserved thanks to generous volunteer work and donations. The ranch style home was the first ranch home listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon. In addition to the house, which has a full basement, the museum uses a separate building as a gallery. That building, the Northwest Gallery, was formerly used for storage and as a shop, but looks similar to the Rice House. This gallery focuses on items from Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, and includes collections of agates, thundereggs, zeolites, and placer gold, among others. Before opening to the public in 1997 an elevator was added to the home. The museum includes a Community Room, Resource Library, Fossil Gallery, Rainbow Gallery, Special Exhibits, Education Room, Petrified Wood Gallery, Main Gallery, and Pacific Northwest Gallery. There is also a gift shop, while the outside grounds include a walk that features sandstone, columns of basalt, a 1,200 pound (540 kg) rock made of pumice, and the Rock Pile activity in which visitors are invited to take a rock home. References