PENDLETON – The doors opened Friday to the new Umatilla River habitat exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Eastern Oregon.

It was an instant success.

Kids didn’t need much coaching to use the “fishing poles,” try the hopscotch grid on the painted “river” winding across the floor and make use of the hand puppets and bird, fish and beaver costumes.

The exhibit at the Children’s Museum and the mural on the cement wall on Byers Avenue at Southwest First Street (near US Bank) were funded by grants from the Juan Young Trust and the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Delta Smith, executive director of the Pendleton Arts Center, Betty Klepper of Stewards for the Umatilla River Ecosystem and Jill Heffner, executive director of the Children’s Museum, spent part of last winter writing a joint application for the grant.

Funds were used for the new exhibit, the mural and the arts camp held at the Arts Center earlier this summer.

The grant also allowed a stipend for the supervising artist, Jamie Gustavson and her assistants, Kasey Anderson and Sam Templeman. Student artists did much of the work on the mural.

Walls in the museum exhibit are painted to represent the natural habitat and wildlife seen along the local section of the river. A bridge at one end provides a convenient “fishing” platform. Education sneaks in with an artist’s flip-book of paintings of nymphs and what they look like when grown.

Insect mobiles hanging from the ceiling were made by the 2002 Arts Camp at the Arts Center in Pendleton.

Hand puppets in the exhibit include a lady bug, mosquito, otter, mallard, raccoon, beaver and a squirrel. A low window in the wall with a camouflage curtain provides a puppet stage where imaginations can take over.

The Children’s Museum will be closed for general maintenance during September. A party is planned for the grand re-opening Tuesday, Oct. 1.

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Contact Sandy Holtz at 1-800-522-0255, ext. 1-225 after hours, or e-mail: sholtz@eastoregonian.com.