A Forgotten Spirit Remembered Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Residents of Cottonwood, California donated their artifacts to their new museum, along with the cases to display them in. Eventually covering three rooms, these eclectic exhibits included paintings like Frank Adams’ famous painting of Major Pierson Reading’s adobe house, memorabilia from a local young Army flier who died on a training mission in 1931, doctors’ prescriptions from 1901 to 1910, a collection of rocks and minerals loaned from Shasta College, and a variety of antique machines.

The town was proud of its museum. But this shining star’s life was short-lived. Located at the end of Front Street in an area with no street lights. it was an easy target for vandals. Late one dark night in 1981, a group of robbers broke in. Stealing what they could, they left destruction and rivers of shattered glass in their wake.

Broken-hearted, too sad to think of rebuilding, Cottonwood residents left the wrecked site vacant for years. Eventually the building was purchased and moved to Front and Brush streets where it now serves as a real estate business.