In an era of fast fashion, Willamette Heritage Center is bucking the trend, highlighting the painstaking process of making fabric by hand.
The center’s 37th Sheep to Shawl Festival runs Saturday, May 4, opening the campus of the former Thomas Kay Woolen Mill. The historic mill opened in 1889 and at its peak employed one in five Salemites who worked outside of farms.
The event is free and runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1313 Mill St. S.E. As the name suggests, it spotlights the process of turning wool into clothing, with live sheep-shearing, tours of the mill highlighting the cleaning process and fiber artists on-site spinning, weaving and crocheting.
It’s good to know “where it all started” for fabric and clothing, said Stephanie Meeks, the heritage center’s marketing specialist. “Getting to connect with what happened in the past in this area and the heritage of this area can inform how you look at the stuff that you have.”
Eight rams will be sheared on-site, with shearing demonstrations running from 11 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Members of the Salem Fiberarts Guild, who work in the mill, will be making fabric live during the event.
It’s not all about fiber: there will be live music, duck races, and all heritage center exhibits will be open to the public to view free of charge. That includes a traveling knitted coral reef exhibit, which was knitted in part by students at Salem’s Eagle Charter School.
Demonstrators will also showcase other historic artisan activities, including blacksmithery, flintknapping and woodworking.
The usual alpacas in attendance won’t be there Saturday, Meeks said — they had a schedule conflict with Mother’s Day weekend. But Caesar the No-Drama Llama is expected to make an appearance.
Saturday is also Salem’s public archaeology day, when the archaeological dig on the northwest side of the heritage center will be open for public viewing and activities.
It’s the third spring archaeologists have been digging on the heritage center campus and neighboring Willamette University for artifacts and evidence of the Oregon Indian Mission Manual Labor School.
“We’re chasing the foundation wall to see if we can find a corner for the parsonage building,” said Kimberli Fitzgerald, archaeologist with the city of Salem.
The excavation is part of a larger effort to document the early period of colonization in Salem and the operation of the mission school, where missionaries taught Indigenous children from a variety of Northwest nations European methods of agriculture, English and religion in an effort to replace Indigenous customs and culture. It’s a collaboration that includes the city, university, heritage center and Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
Last year, their major find was a pile of mortared stones believed to be part of the parsonage foundation. Now, they’re seeking to confirm that through unearthing more segments.
“Having just a portion of the foundation wall makes it hard,” Fitzgerald said.
Visitors Saturday will be able to view artifacts and learn more about the project. For more about Sheep to Shawl, visit the heritage center’s website.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
