Orem Heritage Museum

The origins of the Orem Heritage Museum trace back to Gareth Seastrand, an educator in the Alpine School District in the 1970s. During Seastrand’s career, he was also a principal at Windsor Elementary School in Orem, Utah. When an embargo on oil occurred, the school district was forced to cancel everything relating to trips for students due to the lack of fuel.

Seastrand strongly believed that the students needed a place to visit. He knew that the children needed a place to go and learn hands-on outside of the classroom. This is when the idea to start a museum for the children first came to mind. He wrote a grant proposal to the recently formed Bicentennial Commission board for funding. The board offered $20,000 to help establish the museum. With the grant Seastrand received, he created the Orem Heritage Museum that first opened in the basement of the Orem Senior Center in 1976.

The Orem Heritage Museum was located in the senior center until 1987. That year, the senior center needed the space in the basement for their residents. Everything that was part of the museum was moved to a storage unit. Not long after, there was a fire at the senior center in the basement. Had the museum not moved, the fire would have seriously damaged the museum’s holdings. 

The artifacts remained in storage until 1996. That year, Sharon’s Cultural, Education, Recreation Association, known as SCERA, offered to take ownership of the museum. SCERA is an organization for the arts and education with a focus on the performing arts. The purpose is to educate youth in the arts in order to help their talents grow through performance. SCERA decided to relocate the entire museum to the SCERA Center of the Arts and dedicated a room to display the artifacts.

It wasn’t until 2012 that the SCERA saw an opportunity to relocate the Orem Heritage Museum to a building of its own. In 1934, Lincoln High, the local high school in Orem, built their own seminary building. The high school was later closed in 1976, leaving the seminary building vacant. The building was bought by an organization known as CEDO. CEDO, the Commission for Economic Development, was created in 1983 with the desire to help the city of Orem diversify the different types of businesses forming in the area. However, the CEDO organization went defunct. When the business went under, the SCERA took the opportunity to buy the building, giving the Orem Heritage Museum a new home of its own while giving it more room to expand its collection. 

Artifacts on display in the Orem Heritage Museum include many Native American tools and instruments from the era before white settlement. The museum is proud to display many artifacts from veterans over 100 years, including World Wars I and II, the Korea War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Visitors can find uniforms and displays honoring the soldiers who were involved in each of these wars. There is also a diorama of a World War II prisoner of war camp built in Orem in 1943 to hold German and Italian prisoners.

The Orem Heritage Museum is open to the public thanks to the many contributions of many people, especially Gareth Seastrand who gave the residents of the city a place to come and enjoy their local history. Seastrand was on the board of the museum for many years until he was given emeritus status. “Gareth Seastrand, the lifelong resident of Orem and founder of the Orem Heritage Museum, was honored with

Madsen, Ryan (Orem Heritave Museum Director). Telephone interview with author. November 16, 2020.

Fieldsted, Paige. “Lifelong Orem Resisdent Honored with Founder’s Day Award.” Daily Herald, July 2014; updated December 17, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2020.

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/orem/lifelong-orem-resident-honored-with-founders-day-award/article_49e0ff62-31a4-52ba-b963-9f1a9a4ece15.html

Jamison, R. (n.d.). Orem Heritage Museum: Free Tours. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://scera.org/oremheritagemuseum/

SCERA Center for the Arts: Orem, Utah. (n.d.). Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://scera.org/event-category/scera-center-for-the-arts/

Herald, G. “27 years later, CEDO still helping Orem businesses.”Daily Herald, December 03, 2020, from, 

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/orem/27-years-later-cedo-still-helping-orem-businesses/article_963df347-efe6-5d91-b705-06aa32914975.html