Visitors to Willamette Heritage Center Saturday gathered under umbrellas and tents as they roamed the grounds of the historic mill for a celebration of all things fiber.
The annual Sheep to Shawl event drew hundreds of people to watch live sheep shearing and learn about the process of turning wool into yarn and clothing.
The mill’s historic exhibits were open to the public, along with the traveling PNW Community Coral Reef Project, a knit recreation of a marine ecosystem.
Visitors also got a chance to see the archaeological dig on the northwest side of the heritage center campus, where volunteers are working with state, city and tribal archaeologists to excavate the likely site of the former Methodist parsonage.
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Photographer Ron Cooper and his wife Penny moved to Salem in 1969 to take a job as photographer at the Oregon Statesman (later the Statesman Journal). Their three children, Monica, Kimberly, and Christopher, attended and graduated from Salem public schools. Cooper retired from the Statesman Journal in 2001 but, has continued his passion for photography in many ways, including as a photographer for the Salem Reporter.
