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By JONEL ALECCIA
People familiar with the long and rocky evolution of the Pacific Northwest Museum of Natural History say they're saddened but not surprised by the news that the doors will close Sept. 1.
While they stop short of saying "I told you so," former backers and critics alike contend that flawed planning and failure to heed obvious warning signs contributed to the museum's failure.
"Surprised? No," said Ralph Wehinger, the Eagle Point chiropractor who first proposed plans for a local natural history museum in the mid-1980s. "I questioned it way back in the early days, when the profit-generating centers were eliminated."
Original plans called for a huge facility, complete with a theater, a large gift store, a restaurant and other profit-making enterprises, Wehinger said. Without those, exhibits alone couldn't support operations and pay back debt, he said.
"I still believe that this community and this tourism mix can support a museum if, in fact, the right components for revenue generation are there," he said.
But the problem wasn't that the museum was too small, counters Debbie Miller, board member and former president of the Friends of Ashland, a group long critical of museum plans. It's that the project was too big for the community it serves.
"My first thought is, I'm kind of sorry that they bit off more than they could possibly chew," said Miller, upon learning of the planned closure. "It could have been a nice little interpretive center to show off the geology of this area. They didn't have to try to bring in the world."
Instead, early museum organizers relied on inflated visitor projections and ignored public concerns, contends Miller, who researched nearly a dozen similar museums in small cities across the country.
"All of them started very small and worked their way up and they were just hanging by a thread," she said. "When I presented that, the paper was almost literally tossed off the desk. It was a total disregard for reality."
Early zeal for the project clouded practical concerns, agreed Robert Scholl, the former development director, who suggested as early as 1993 that the museum might default on its bonded debt.
"There was a certain fixation, a certain steadfastness in terms of what people wanted to do," Scholl said. "And there was an unwillingness to listen to criticism or concerns."
In particular, Scholl recalled that he was uncomfortable seeking state bonds of more than $1.5 million, though he eventually gained approval of $2 million before leaving his post in the fall of 1993. Months later, the museum had secured $3.2 million in state Health, Housing, Education and Cultural Authority funds.
"That's one of the things I really can't fathom, how the people in Portland and the people on the board of directors could let this happen," he said. "These aren't stupid people. They know how to add and subtract, multiply and divide."
However it happened, the museum's failure is a blow to Southern Oregon tourism, said Patti Bills, executive director of the Medford Visitors and Convention Bureau.
The quality of museum exhibits has never been in question, but continuing financial troubles may have tarnished its word-of-mouth attraction, she said.
"Some of the luster kind of wore off," she said. "It is a disappointment that they haven't been able to generate the activity that they needed and also that they haven't been able to find a solution to their money problems."
If museum staff hadn't found a solution, it wasn't for lack of effort, said Mark Dennett, executive vice president of Laurel Communications. The Medford firm has been charged with the museum's marketing efforts since its July 1994 opening.
"They have been getting some record numbers of people," Dennett said, citing the recent chalk drawing contest and the Bigfoot exhibit now under way. "I think, frankly, that Phil Lamb and the whole museum staff has been doing an outstanding job. Somebody made a mistake in the beginning, but from then on, everybody's been working very hard."
Ashland city and school officials agreed that the museum's closure would be a loss for the community.
"It does provide a venue for tourists during the week. And it's been a wonderful educational resource for children," said City Administrator Brian Almquist.
Only Ashland Schools Superintendent John Daggett seemed genuinely startled at the news of the museum's closure.
"Oh, wow," he said. "Really? I knew that they had troubles, but I thought they were pulling it together."
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