A River Runs Through Us: The Art & Words of the Lostine

Another wonderful Wild Landscape exhibit at the Josephy Center

The Wild and Scenic Lostine River is an iconic Oregon landscape. The river begins amid the rugged peaks, placid lakes, and weather-beaten white bark pines of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Its clear, cold waters follow a glacially-hewn valley for 31 miles to the confluence with the Wallowa River, where it nurtured an important Nez Perce summer encampment. The ridges along its watershed are places of alpine splendor, home to Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, Rocky Mountain goats, and other iconic wildlife. The river harbors bull trout, steelhead and rainbow trout, Chinook salmon, and recently restored Coho salmon, whose first returns occurred in 2018.

This exhibit will portray the entirety of this extraordinary wild watershed and its wild inhabitants, river, forests, and alpine setting, from sources to mouth, ridge-top-to-ridgetop, in words and images. It is the 30th year of the river’s official designation as a Wild River.