La Grande’s former fire station, situated on the corner of Elm Street and Washington Avenue right next to the town’s visitor center, serves as the new Eastern Oregon Fire Museum. A half- dozen spiffy vintage fire trucks are on display, including a restored 1939 Seagrave ladder truck and a 1925 Stutz engine that’s one of only nine such models ever built.

For a taste of the pioneer migration, walk the trails at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Park at Blue Mountain Crossing, northwest of town. See faint traces of wagon tracks, then record your impressions of frontier life in the Continuing Oregon Trail Story journal, which is left out for visitors during the summer.

If you’re planning to travel east after your visit to La Grande and want to stay off the interstate a bit longer, consider the two-lane alternative, State Route 237, just east of town. Treat yourself to a soak at Cove Warm Springs Pool, then drive eight miles to Union, where the Union County Museum now houses the exhibit Cowboys Then & Now. And if, like the pioneers, you feel compelled to linger in the Grande Ronde Valley, the Union Hotel has 15 stylishly renovated rooms that began catering to guests back in 1921.