It has been about 15 years since I first visited the Colton Area Museum.
At that time, I was fortunate to meet Larry Sheffield who was the president of the association that ran it.
The museum is packed with memorabilia relating to Colton’s past, and virtually all of it has been donated by residents.
A year ago, Sheffield died, which was a great loss to the institution of which he was so proud. It also was a loss to the community, which he had joined after arriving from Utah in the 1970s.
There have been some changes that I have noticed over the years and there is still a lot to look at and enjoy, not the least of which is the building itself.
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The museum is housed in what was once the public library. It was an Andrew Carnegie gift — one of 2,509 such gifts that the wealthy man from Scotland donated to the nation that helped him become so rich.
Carnegie arrived in the U.S. when he was 13, and maintained that he had found the secret to his further education by reading. Therefore, he donated these libraries to cities throughout the nation in order to help others in their quest for the American dream.
On the occasion of this visit, I met with Mike Murphy, the current president, who helps operate the museum.
Cheerful flags were posted outside on the grass to encourage people to enter for the three hours the museum is open on Wednesdays.
Murphy has been volunteering at the museum for the last four years. Like Sheffield, Murphy, who came from Kansas, is not a native of the area.
I asked him my usual question: “If there was a serious problem and you had to get out quickly and could only take a couple of items, what would they be?”
His reply surprised me somewhat, as he would try to save the collection of Colton High School annuals, called the Crimson and Gold. The books date back to 1904.
“We don’t get too many requests to look at that one,” he joked.
It was a slim volume and hardly like the later ones at all. But it sits on the self of the bookcase devoted to these records of the school, ready for anyone interested in reliving old times.
And that is really what a museum like this offers.
Lots of school children come here and for them, of course, the artifacts can hardly help them relive the past as they don’t have a great deal of past to relive. But they are always fascinated by things that come from long ago.
I wonder what they make of the Victrola gramophone with its pile of records and needles that had to be replaced all too often. Compared to the music library they all have on their smartphones, this mahogany behemoth must seem very bizarre. The volume was controlled by opening and shutting a couple of doors.
One exhibit I found intriguing was donated by a widow. Her husband had suffered from cancer and this strange electrical machine was supposed to be the cure. It failed to do the job and now sits on the floor of this very interesting museum as a testament to one of those ideas that just didn’t work.
I liked a cabinet of Native American dolls that shone with their brightly beaded colors. The dolls were similar to ones used in trading, Murphy explained. These were Navajo dolls, but were in fact copies of the real things which were made by the Hopi.
“Trevor’s Travels (in Southern California)” is available from amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. You can reach Trevor Summons at trevorsummons@hotmail.com.
Colton Area Museum
Where: 380 N. La Cadena Drive, Colton
Hours: 1-4 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays; special tours arranged by appointment
Information: 909-824-8814, coltonareamuseum.com
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