In 1990, the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University, and Washington State University Vancouver formed the Center for Columbia River History (CCRH) to promote research, education, and public programs about the Columbia River Basin. The center operated for more than 20 years. Among its work was the Columbia River Basin Project (CRBP), an umbrella project supported by a 1997 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The CRBP included development of online exhibits, collection of oral history interviews, and creation of high school curricula about the history of the region's land, wildlife, and people.

The online exhibits developed by CCRH focused on eight communities in the Columbia River Basin: Columbia Slough, Cottage Grove, and Umatilla in Oregon; Camas, Moses Lake, and Crewport in Washington; Sandpoint, in Idaho; and Native fisheries in the basin. The Columbia Communities project explored how these communities — whether defined by work, family, culture, persistence, or place — were affected by construction of large federal hydroelectric dams from the mid-to-late twentieth century. The exhibits, presented on the CCRH website, included primary documents, photographs, and oral history interviews that were conducted for the project.

The interviews were collected by CCRH staff, graduate students, volunteers, and Portland State University students. Kathy Tucker conducted most of the interviews for the Camas project, and assisted Katrine Barber in collecting interviews for the Cottage Grove and Sandpoint projects. Donna Sinclair collected many of the interviews for the Umatilla project; she also gathered interviews and, with Katrine Barber, directed student interviewers in the Columbia Slough project. CCRH later donated the interview recordings and transcripts for Camas, Columbia Slough, Cottage Grove, Sandpoint, and Umatilla to the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.