History buffs and researchers, check out the White River Valley Museum Web site, it’s got a lot of cool new photos and improved features to help you get to them.

In fact, said Museum Director Patricia Cosgrove, the new photo archive has been bulked up from about 400 to 5,000 historic images.

“Over the years we have scanned all the photographs and converted them to an online data base, so it would be the same as if you were paging through them here at the museum,” Cosgrove said.

Once a year, Cosgrove said, the museum adds newly acquired photographs to keep the archives as current as it can be. This time the scanning duties fell entirely to volunteer Dave Payne.

Curator of Collections Alison Tisue said people may search the photo archive using keywords and find old-timey images of the local Puget Sound region, Northern Pacific Railroad, Japanese-Americans, Northwest Indian culture and more.

A series of short video documentaries called “Auburn Our Story” features residents with a one-of-a-kind perspective on the city’s history, including interviews with six local Northern Pacific Railroad retirees, a Japanese-American interned during World War II, an antique sawmill operator, a life-long teacher, and a long-time butcher from Massey’s, the first supermarket on the West Coast.

History buffs can also search the Web site for stories and information marinated in local history. For example, enter the keyword “outlaw” and you will learn all about desperado Harry Tracy and how he held the Johnson family captive on Mary Olson Farm in 1902 after his escape from the Oregon Penitentiary. Known as “the last horseback outlaw,” Tracy later shot himself to avoid capture. His gun is among the museum’s permanent displays.

Click on “Exhibits” to get information on the latest displays and take self-guided tours of key historical sites in Auburn.

The improved site reflects the branded design of “The White River Journal,” the museum’s quarterly newsletter, which is committed to telling the stories of the White River Valley region’s “ordinary people, extraordinary history.” Back issues of “The White River Journal” can be downloaded on the Web site.

Webmaster Dan Flax designed the Web site and maintains it.