Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan Museoa

Small museum in a mill in Elgorriaga on the lives of Basque shepherds who emigrated to the United States, with photographs, objects and an audiovisual.

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About the museum

The Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan Museoa, or Museo de los Pastores Vascos en América (Museum of Basque Shepherds in America), opened at the end of 2021 in Elgorriaga, inside and outside the village's restored mill, behind the spa. It is promoted by the association Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan, founded in 2011 to spread knowledge of how the young people of the area who emigrated to the United States as sheep herders lived and worked.

The museum pays tribute to the people of the Malerreka region and of other Navarrese Pyrenean valleys who, from the late 19th century and especially in the 1950s and 1960s, went to the American West. It aims to preserve their memory and to explain the reality of their trade and daily life.

The building's two floors hold instruments, photographs and memories of those years. Outside is a karrokanpo, the wagon that served as a shelter for shepherds in the mountains. An audiovisual shows how bread was baked in the most remote sierras. The association complements the offer with the Ruta del pastor americano (American Shepherd Route), a tour of the villages from which many of them set out.

Highlights

Photographs, instruments and objects of Basque shepherds in the American West
Karrokanpo, the wagon that served as a shelter in the mountains
Audiovisual on bread-baking in the sierras
Building in a former mill, next to the spa of Elgorriaga
Ruta del pastor americano through the villages of origin

Permanent exhibition

Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan Museoa – Two floors with photographs, instruments and memories of Basque shepherds in the American West, a karrokanpo outside and an audiovisual on bread-baking.

Founded: 2021
Operated by: Euskal Artzainak Ameriketan Elkartea