Dwain Goforth, Camisha Knowlton, Linda Lake, Jane Weaver and Marybeth Alteneder took part in Saturday's Living History Day at the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum. Courtesy photo.

LOWER LAKE – When history comes to life it becomes something relative; when history is revealed about your home it is something you can take with you.

Visiting the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum offers a unique glimpse of what our home town was like years ago.

Saturday was the first Living History Day held at the museum. If you missed it, however, you may soon have another chance to experience this new event.

“We’d like to have one four times a year,” said Lake County Museum Curator Linda Lake said.

The turn out this Saturday was a good one, said Lake, with many people visiting the schoolhouse to investigate their town’s history.

The Museum is opened year round, Wednesday through Sunday, 11a.m. to 4p.m. In Lakeport you can also visit the Courthouse Museum. Their hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The museums offer an educational and inexpensive way to entertain yourself and your family.

Saturday offered a slide show of historic pictures, from men posing with their hunting dogs to horsedrawn wagons racing down a trail.

“People don’t get to see our historic pictures enough,” said Lake, that is why another slideshow is in the making as well.

On Saturday the Museum also had on display an authentic spinning wheel, a sewing machine and a player piano. Children’s games, such as marbles, also were played.

An exhibit at the museum reminds visitors that tough economic times aren't anything new. The exhibit explains that the average worker in the 1800s made about $16 a week. At the same time, an average week's supplies cost about $18.50, which is why children often were sent to work in order to help families make ends meet.

While you’re at the museum make sure that you look into purchasing a birds-eye view map of Lake County. These maps are part of the Museum Preservation Committee’s new fundraiser. These are the same people responsible for the new paint job of the building in August of 2007.

Lake said a museum volunteer digitally restored the map and it is now on sale for $35, not including a frame. This map was used to entice people in the 1800s to move to Lake County and buy real estate.

A historical map of Lake County that has been digitally restored and is available for sale at the museum's gift shop. Proceeds will go to the Museum Preservation Committee.

Saturday's event appeared to be a success.

“We had a lot of fun and were going to do it again,” said Assistant curator Dwain Goforth, dressed in authentic period costume.

Lake County is rich with history patiently waiting to be discovered. Visiting the museum will take you back into time and give you the opportunity to look into the past at the area's great history.

The Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum (16435 Morgan Valley Road, telephone 995-3565) is open year-round, Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In Lakeport, the Historic Courthouse Museum (255 N. Main St., telephone 263-4555) also is open all during the year, and welcomes guests from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

An exhibit of historic farming implements graces one of the museum's walls. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.

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