Through paintings and other objects from his life, this exhibition will delve into the extraordinary journey of a Russian Baron who fled his homeland in the turbulent years leading up to World War I.

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After emigrating to the United States in the late 1910s, Baron Eugene Fersen founded his spiritual organization, the Lightbearers. In the 1930s, he chose Archer near Stevenson, WA as the site for his university, stating he believed the Columbia River Gorge is a spiritual vortex.

 

His early life among Russian Oligarchic spiritualists and philosophers, combined with the trauma of World War I, profoundly influenced his work. Fersen’s writings, including Science of Being and Is There a God? established him as a notable figure in the realm of early New Age Spirituality of the 1920s.

 

Discover the possibilities of his mysterious lineage, the development of his unique philosophy, and how he came to acquire 2,000 acres around Archer Mountain in Skamania County