Things are cooking at the ECCHS museum

Kathy Leighton has been on the ECCHS board longer than she probably cares to admit. She’s witnessed first-hand the progress that has been made to ensure the history of our area is preserved and made available for locals to learn from and enjoy.

“Things seem to go in cycles,” Kathy says. “Some years, there’s a lot going on, and others not so much.” Right now, she added, the former is true, with dozens of active volunteers pitching in – more than she’s ever seen before.

Doing most of the heavy lifting is a group of retired folks who call themselves the Breakers. Kathy says they adopted the name because they take a lot of breaks, but you’d never know it by how much they get done.

I stopped by the museum this week and found Breaker Bob Byer hard at work, repairing the museum’s picket fence. A member of the Byer family who has donated countless hours to the museum and local schools, Bob said being a Breaker is more than just something to keep busy. “It’s mostly the camaraderie with the other guys and doing things the public can enjoy,” he said.

Perhaps the best example of the Breakers’ work is the one-room Eden Plains Schoolhouse. Built in 1868 in Knightsen, the building was donated to the ECCHS and moved onto the museum grounds a half-dozen years ago. It’s now been fully restored and filled with desks, pictures, chalkboards, McGuffey readers and even a coal scuttle like that originally used to fuel the school’s potbelly stove.

The school fits perfectly into one of the ECCHS’ most notable projects, a month-long educational project known as School Days. This year, more than 1,400 local third-graders participated, getting hands-on experience pumping water, washing clothes with a washboard, churning ice cream, excavating a midden box for “artifacts” and learning East County history. 

The kids spent some time in the old schoolhouse, too, under the watchful eye of Mistress Virginia Karlberg, whose cross-country trip with her husband Tim secured many of the desks and other accoutrements in the school. Next year, long-time local educator Mary Black, organizer of School Days, will expand the program to include fourth-graders, who will spend an entire day in school there, just like their peers of a century ago.

You have the chance to experience it all on Sept. 14, along with horsesmithing, spinning demonstrations, tours of the museum and grounds, live music and the traditional tri-tip dinner with all the fixins. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children 6 to 12, and free for those younger than 6. To get yours, send a check made out to ECCHS to P.O. Box 202, Brentwood CA, 94513.

Rick Lemyre’s column appears every other week in The Press. To contact him about historical experiences you’ve had, email him at ricklemyre@gmail.com.