A free, self-guided outdoor museum preserving the stories,
tools, and sacrifice of those who shaped Oregon's timber heritage.
"Nobody gets forgotten."
In the early 1970s, a friendship forged between two men who loved timber gave birth to something neither could have built alone. Gordon Smith, an Elsie, Oregon logger and passionate collector of old logging machinery, had a dream: a place where the tools, the machines, and the memory of the men who worked Oregon's forests would never be lost.
Maurie Dooly Clark — born into Oregon's logging dynasty, a WWII veteran, and the man who built the largest industrial insurance brokerage in the state — used his connections, resources, and quiet determination to make Gordon's dream a reality at milepost 18 on the Sunset Highway.
Today, Camp 18 is a 501(c)3 nonprofit museum, a living monument to the golden age of Pacific Northwest logging.
Logger, collector, and visionary. Gordon hand-peeled every log in the adjacent Camp 18 Restaurant — his greatest physical monument. As museum founder, his guiding principle was simple and absolute: nobody gets forgotten. He served as the heart of Camp 18 for five decades.
Born in Linnton, Oregon above his family's sawmill. Whistle punk. WWII veteran of the Italian campaign. Oregon's leading timber industry insurance broker. Maurie brought his lifelong love of logging — and his extraordinary network — to make Camp 18 possible. He lived his childhood dream and gave it to all of us.
At the heart of Camp 18 stands a memorial building with inner walls bearing over 400 individual copper plaques — each one a name, a face, a life given to the logging industry of the Pacific Northwest.
These men and women felled timber in the fog-soaked forests of the Pacific Northwest — Oregon, Washington, and the great redwood country of Northern California. They ran the rigging, set the chokers, worked the steam donkeys. Many gave their lives doing it. Every plaque represents a family that still grieves, a community that still remembers.
The artifacts, tools, and personal belongings displayed throughout the memorial building belonged to the very men and women memorialized on these walls. They are not museum pieces — they are their things, left behind so we would never forget the hands that held them.
The memorial grows by approximately 10–15 plaques each year as families come forward. It is never finished. Every logger deserves to be here.
🌲 Annual Memorial Ceremony: Camp 18 has traditionally held its Loggers Memorial Inductees Ceremony on the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend each year. Families, friends, and the logging community gather to honor those added to the wall and remember all those memorialized here.
Know a logger who should be on this wall? Memorial bronze plaques are available for $200. Families may submit one 5×7 vertical photograph. The deadline for the May ceremony is March 1st.
📋 Plaque Application FormStanding nine feet tall at the entrance to the upper memorial, this magnificent bronze watches over every visitor who comes to pay their respects. As you walk around, a memorial plaque can be found on our memorial slab for a man named Steve Boudreau — a classic logger. Alongside his plaque, the very photograph used to design this one-of-a-kind bronze shows Steve doing what he loved best: logging.
The statue was cast in 2009 by Parks Bronze in Joseph, Oregon, using Steve's actual gear — his spiked boots, hard hat, axe, and chainsaw — donated by his family so he could be remembered exactly as he worked. Even the hornet's nest in the tree came from his garage. These are only some of the many details that can be seen on this one-of-a-kind bronze.
We invite you to come to our memorial. You cannot truly feel the spirit of the logger at Camp 18 until you have the opportunity to stand beside our Bronze Logger.
The Camp 18 Logging Museum building — constructed by board member Gene Nice of Nice Construction with volunteer labor, charging only for materials — is coming soon as one of the finest collections of Pacific Northwest logging history in Oregon.
We are excited to be opening soon! When the doors open you'll find a television video presentation running with seating, and we plan to have our N-scale train display on exhibit as well.
If you would like to become a volunteer at Camp 18 — or are interested in joining our board — we would love to hear from you. Every hand helps keep this history alive.
A 36-foot-long, 6-foot-wide N-scale model depicting an early logging community and Columbia River logging operations — steam donkeys, boom towns, rail transport, and river drives.
🚧 Coming SoonOriginal photographs, documents, and personal artifacts from logging families across Oregon and Washington. History that would otherwise be lost.
🚧 Coming SoonA hands-on look at the art and science of keeping a logger's most essential tool razor-sharp. See the equipment, learn the craft.
🚧 Coming SoonAn immersive look at the history of Pacific Northwest logging through archival footage, oral histories, and documentary presentations.
🚧 Coming SoonBefore chainsaws, before hydraulics, before everything — there was iron, fire, and the skill of the blacksmith. The logging camps of the Pacific Northwest ran on hand-forged tools: the axes, the wedges, the hooks and tongs that moved timber from the forest to the mill.
Camp 18's blacksmith shop preserves this foundational craft, connecting visitors to the hands-on ingenuity that made Oregon logging possible. Every tool on display was made the hard way — the right way.
Open Daily
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
FREE
Donations gratefully accepted at the guest book
42362 US Highway 26
Elsie, Oregon 97138
Milepost 18 · Sunset Highway
440 steps · Full loop
10 stops
Unstaffed — open daily
Herman Doty, Director
971-306-1043
[email protected]
Camp 18 Logging Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit — every donation goes directly toward preserving Pacific Northwest logging history and honoring the men and women on this wall.
Click below to see our generous past donors and learn how your gift makes a difference.
🌳 View Our Donor Tree & Give