Colton Area Museum Welcomes Recent Addition to CHS Yearbook Collection

The Colton Area Museum’s ever growing Colton High School (CHS) yearbook collection just expanded by one after the museum celebrated with friends, families, visitors and museum visitors the donation of the 2013 CHS yearbook. The edition is the first in the state to include an attached video display on its cover, and was donated to the museum by Colton Joint Unified School District (CJUSD) Board Member Dan Flores, a 1997 CHS graduate. “[The yearbook] was one I had purchased and donated because I thought it was a neat project [the museum] was undertaking. I was visiting Saturday and I was able to see all these yearbooks back to the beginning,” Flores said, adding, “There are so many stories to be told, not just about the individual yearbooks themselves, but collectively when they are together. They tell the story of Colton, quite frankly, and they capture it through the eyes of our youth.” Dr. Luis Gonzalez, more colloquially known as Dr. G, is a community advocate and museum docent who hosted the donation celebration on Saturday, Sept. 21 to celebrate the collection’s newest addition. He said, “Our goal is to continue this tradition so every citizen and visitor alike can enjoy the rich picture history of CHS in its entirety.” The yearbook collection dedicated to Colton High School was completed earlier this year after a two-year effort on the part of Dr. Gonzalez to track down all of the missing books, with the help of community residents, CHS alum and educators. The collection dates back to 1902, and is under lock and key, Gonzalez shared, but it is available to the viewing public by request during regular museum hours. Lucas Drake is the CHS yearbook advisor since 2005 and has worked with Dr. Gonzalez in the past to restore the entire yearbook collection. He said the up-to-date yearbook collection “definitely benefits the community. Yearbooks are important, and they are very important to people, and to go out there and get the holes plugged is a lot of work. To go out there and find someone who has a yearbook and then ask them to donate it, to part with it—that takes some convincing,” he said. Dr. Gonzalez shared that plans are underway to display the entire yearbook collection at the museum during the second annual open house, now slated for May 3, 2014. The Colton Area Museum is located at 380 North La Cadena Dr. and is open Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 through 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information about the upcoming open house event and future events is available by calling the museum at 909-824-8814, or by calling Dr. Gonzalez at 909-213-3730.