The Annual Maxville Gathering At the Woodlands and watersheds festival
Performers at the Maxville Gathering in Enterprise, Oregon. Joe Whittle and S. Renee Mitchell’s story, “Reaching Back for Truth,” explores the legacy of Maxville, a logging camp where Black and white loggers worked side by side at a time when laws excluding Black people from living in Oregon were still on the books.
MHIC organized the first Annual Maxville Gathering in 2009. This event now occurs during the third week of August each year. Community residents and members of heritage organizations volunteer time, resources, and materials. Local businesses offer discounts for services and gift certificates. Agencies, clubs, and community groups provide donations, in-kind support, and artwork for fundraisers. Guest speakers representing descendants, experts, and scholars offer perspectives on the history of the community.
Attendees at the Annual Maxville Gathering enjoy learning about logging practices from the community’s early days. Volunteers use axes, saws, and horseshoes to demonstrate logging skills. Other volunteers use mule teams to demonstrate how logs were moved from forest to railcars. The gathering also features local musicians and local foods, and the neighboring town to the north, Flora, provides a mule-drawn peoplehauler for tours of the town site.
The Maxville Gathering celebrates the rich and diverse cultural history of logging in Wallowa County and similar isolated communities across the Pacific Northwest to honor the connection of people to place and each other–the skill, passion and sweat required to make a living from the land.
This celebration is family-friendly and fun for all ages–with logging demonstrations, scavenger hunts, fishing, stories, lumberjack games, a silent auction, drawings and a lineup of award-winning musicians.
Follow us on Facebook for upcoming
Maxville Gathering dates and information.
The Maxville Gathering in the News
