About the Interpretive Center

“Maxville” was the railroad logging town that existed about 15 miles north of Wallowa, Oregon. The emergence of the Maxville Project reflects the local community's deep appreciation for the preservation of its oral history, photographs, historical structures, and forested landscape.

The Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center seeks to gather, catalog, preserve, and interpret the rich history of the multicultural logging community of Maxville, Oregon as well as similar communities in the Pacific Northwest. Maxville itself operated until the early 1930s and was unique in that it included 50 or so African Americans and their families and was home to the only segregated school in Oregon. Through historical records, the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center has identified Maxville loggers of African American, Greek, Philippine, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Latinx, and Native American descent, among others.

Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center is a fully organized charitable organization. From California to Washington D.C., our governing board members represent national, regional, and local diverse volunteers dedicated to educating the public about the significant history of Maxville, Oregon and similar communities in the Pacific Northwest.