Come weave through a trio of mazes at our brand new museum! At the "G" Street livestock entrance gate at the Tulelake-Butte Valley Fairgrounds just across from the Catholic Church is a brand new building. The newest addition to the fairgrounds is a complex which includes a museum, gift shop, and fair office. Open weekdays year-around and weekends by appointment, the museum features a one-hour audio cassette tape tour. Visitors will hear through headphones the voices of the heroes they see in the displays. Featured are the histories of Tulelake, Butte Valley, Malin and Merrill. From volcanoes, Modoc Indian culture, reclamation, wars, POW & Japanese internment camps to homesteading, logging and farming, this first-class museum will impress you! Original barracks and a guard tower have been restored thanks to a CCLPEP grant. The displays depict not only life during the internment camp days, but also life as it was for homesteaders in the years following WWII.

Murals within the museum include a view of the Tulelake Camp with more than 1400 barracks that were home to over 18,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII, pelicans on Clear Lake (by Susan Christy), Boles Creek (by Diane Wunderle), and Lower Klamath Lake (by Ann McGill). Special exhibits include a mountain lion (Jason Osborne’s) resting on a limb as part of a painted mural, a piece of the original wooden cross from the Peninsula (or Castle Rock), the signed marker from the cross, cannon balls, Modoc Indian artifacts, currency signed by W.C. Dalton, the pickle jar used to draw the homesteads, original movie screen and seats from the Marcha Theater, original Tulelake Reporter printing press, and much more! More than forty 4- by 5-foot boards designed by Mary Hyde feature photographs, memorabilia and text to further tell the rich history. Local brands of the featured communities accent the outside of the new building.

A theater/research area is included in the building. Presentations including videos are being scheduled throughout the fair to be viewed within the theater. Save time and confusion by purchasing your annual or lifetime pass before the fair! Limited-time introductory prices are $3 adult, $2 senior (55+), $1 child (6-12) per visit, or yearly: $10 adult, $7.50 senior/child, or a lifetime pass is $100. Invest in our history and the future of our communities by supporting this Museum of Local History.

For more information contact the Tulelake-Butte Valley Fairgrounds office at (530) 667-5312.