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Photo from Oregon Historical Society A 19th-century Tlingit or Haida bentwood box is part of the "Treasures of Oregon" show. Old Oregon treasures brought to Rogue Valley By BILL VARBLE They say one person's treasure is another's trash, but almost anybody would agree that a branding iron that belonged to Meriwether Lewis falls firmly in the treasure category. What about a pair of old logging boots? What makes something a treasure? The Oregon Historical Society explores that question in an exhibit called "Treasures of Oregon," which can be seen from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday in the parking lot at the Rogue Valley Mall at McAndrews Road and Riverside Avenue. Admission is free. The exhibit comprises a truckload of Oregon artifacts. It opened last month at the state Capitol and has since been on the road. More than 150 pieces make up an exhibit that fits in a 48-foot trailer that provides climate control and even vibration control. Among the highlights: Capt. Robert Gray's sea chest from 1792. A U.S. dragoon pistol from the John Spencer expedition of 1852. An 1892 Blickensderfer typewriter owned by suffragette Abigail Scott Duniway. "It's an exciting project," says OHS director Chet Orloff. "The mission of OHS is to preserve and share state history through access to our museum and library collections, and this is a wonderful way to accomplish that." Orloff says putting the exhibit on the road presented special problems. One is simply the vibrations that start where the rubber meets the road. When you're hauling china made in the 1790s, vibrations are scary. With help from Promotion Products Inc., a Portland company specializing in designing exhibits, vibration-control devices have been adapted to the trailer that have been used in U.S. space shuttles. PPI workers even built crash test dummy-type fake artifacts to test and abuse. The show boasts fiber-optic lights developed for museums that emit no ultraviolet or infrared rays. One of the biggest problems facing designers was to create display areas in a trailer 8 feet wide and still leave room for people to move through. In laying out exhibits, designers worked with polystyrene mockups rather than handle fragile -- and priceless -- originals. "Finding room for the range of objects we've included is like solving a puzzle," says Eva Bernhard, special exhibits coordinator of OHS. She says some artifacts wound up simply being left out. Treasures? Trash? Organizers say the definitions change with time. The exhibit explains why artifacts were important. The show will spend most of the year traveling to every part of the state. It wraps up Oct. 30 in Oregon City. It's sponsored by AT&T and others and hosted by the Southern Oregon Historical Society. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA