When the major fieldwork at Ozette concluded in 1981, the excavation team left behind a backfilled site, a conservation laboratory filled with treated objects in various stages of stabilization, and a collection that would take years of additional processing to fully document and analyze.

The transition from field project to museum project was a significant institutional shift.

The dynamic, resource-intensive world of active excavation gave way to the quieter but equally demanding work of collection management, conservation completion, documentation, and interpretation.

The Makah Cultural and Research Center became the primary institutional home of these ongoing responsibilities.

The 1979 opening of the museum, two years before the conclusion of fieldwork, reflected the urgency of creating appropriate facilities for the collection that was accumulating.

The decision to open the museum before the excavation was complete was in part a practical response to the reality of the collection’s size and the community’s need for facilities to house it properly.