The Manton Parks Historical Committee seeks to honor, preserve and enliven the legacy of the schoolhouse that is now home to the Manton Museum, keeping the history of Manton’s earliest residents alive by sharing and showcasing the most important stories of our corner of California.
Manton Parks is working to restore the community’s museum in order to bring our local history to life.
Originally built as the Manton School, the museum building stands today but requires significant repair after being left untouched for years by the same district that removed public youth education from Manton.
On the front lawn you’ll find a venerable bell - the original schoolhouse bell - and a commemorative plaque dedicated in 2013 by E Clampus Vitus, Lassen-Loomis Chapter #1914, that marks the community’s history of education, service and celebration. These two artifacts serve as our physical gateway to the past: the bell once called children into class, and the plaque reminds us that this campus has long been the center of local memory.
In the early 1990s, a local group of families, drawn together by a deep affection for this place, founded the Manton Historical Society under the leadership of well-respected locals Tip and Alice Wilson, who previously ran an informal museum in their home.
Our goal at Manton Parks is to restore the building with care and to expand the museum’s role in our community. We are working to rehabilitate the physical structure inside and out, to install new gardens and monuments that commemorate the early founders, and to make the campus an active gathering place once again.
We have recently formed a Historical Committee, and we invite anyone with interest in local history, artifacts, stories or design to join us in this exciting relaunch of our museum and campus. Together we will honor the legacy of the past and build a vibrant future for the people of Manton
Their passion for Manton’s heritage led them to negotiate a 30-year lease with the school district and open the museum inside the building. We honor and celebrate the Wilsons and early Manton Historical Society members as the founding stewards who realized that this humble schoolhouse could become a repository for the stories, photographs and artifacts of our valley. Manton Parks now hopes to help carry forward their vision with renewed interest from the community and local control of the physical space.
