Sutter County Museum - Sutter County Museum Past Exhibits

Sutter County Museum Past Exhibits - 2005

State of Emergency Exhibit

The new traveling exhibit State of Emergency: Disaster Response in California opens on Thursday, October 6 with a program about Sutter County levees. The exhibit offers an historical overview of the last century of California disasters and the development of the state's Office of Emergency Services (OES). It surveys the last 100 years of California's disasters beginning with the 1906 earthquake. In dramatic color photos, it chronicles the past decade of disaster in California. The exhibit presents vivid images of this period, starting with the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. During this time period, every county in the state experienced at least one disaster.

In addition to the photos, State of Emergency looks at California's system of readiness. Since its creation in 1970, OES has responded to earthquakes, fires, storms and flooding, winter freezes in agricultural areas, as well as civil unrest. The exhibit originated at the Oakland Museum of California and is toured by the California Exhibition Resources Alliance (CERA), of which our museum is a member. CERA is supported by generous grants from the James Irvine Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the California Council for the Humanities.

The opening program will feature Bill Hampton, manager of Levee District One. He will provide information about the levees that surround us, explain what we have learned from past floods, and what the Levee District does to prevent future flooding of our area. Floods are the most frequent disasters in our part of the state, so we look forward to learning more about the subject, beginning at 7:00pm on Thursday, October 6 at the Museum. The exhibit will remain through November 27.

Elks at Large - Photographic Exhibit

A treasure trove of vintage photos has revealed a glimpse of our community over 75 years ago. A packet of negatives donated to the Museum, when printed, gave us a photo record of activities of the Marysville Elks Lodge in the 1920s and 1930s. The Elks were an active lodge with a huge membership, so a look into their world is a look into the social and fraternal life of our larger community.

Some of their activities took place in their building, which stood on D Street where the Tower Theatre is today. The first floor was rented to an undertaker, the second and third floors were used by the Elks for their meetings and events, and, on the very top, was a roof garden for alfresco events. This handsome building burned in 1926, when the Atkins Theater next door caught fire.

The Elks held their annual duck stews at Hammon Grove. A series of photos document the duck stew of October 24, 1922 from the taciturn group of potato peelers, to the nine huge cauldrons simmering over wood fires, to the Exalted Ruler, in a puzzling photo, holding a very wooly sheep on a rope. It appears from the photos that the Elks knew how to throw a good party even during Prohibition.

A pit barbecue held at Iowa City on May 4, 1930 required a large crew of cooks, and they are all duly pictured. A band and a dance platform provided lively activity for a large crowd. Even the “parking lot”, a field studded with oak trees and filled with 1920s vintage autos, was photographed. Other photos depict the construction of the new Elks building at its present location near Ellis Lake.

The Elks at Large exhibit is up at the Museum through Sunday, September 25.

County Museum Exhibit - Structures of Utility Photographic Exhibit

Structures of Utility is a collection of intriguing black and white photographs by David Stark Wilson. The photographs represent buildings that are purely functional, yet visually interesting - grain elevators, tank houses, rice dryers, barns and other structures rooted in the land and its history. Wilson celebrates buildings he describes as "unfettered by fickle gesture", the straightforward designs and agricultural landscapes that give texture to our countryside.

The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 1st. The exhibit remains through August 7th. The Museum Store will also carry Wilson's marvelous Structures of Utility book. Who knew that we would learn to appreciate our rice dryers as functional art? It is a unique concept that trains us to see our rural landscape through new eyes.

California Indians and the Gold Rush

March brings a new traveling exhibit to the County Museum. Discovery, Devastation, Survival: California Indians and the Gold Rush opens on March 24th and runs to May 15th. It explores the impact of the Gold Rush upon the native people of North America.

A program to accompany the exhibit will be presented by history professor David Rubiales from Yuba Community College. He will speak about the challenges faced by California's native people as gold seekers poured into the gold country from all over the world. The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 3rd. Admission if free.