Help Restore our Historic Manton Museum

Manton Parks is working to restore the community’s museum in order to bring our local history back 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. The museum thrived for two decades, but over time has come to need repairs, stewardship and significant maintenance.

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. Our goal is to use this museum rich in history to teach seminars, share stories of self-reliance of our ancestors, and bring outside history enthusiasts to Manton to support economic growth.