Trinidad Museum, Trinidad

Located off Main Street and Patrick's Point Drive at the entry way to the charming coastal village of Trinidad, is a newly rehabilitated circa 1899-1900 Victorian Italianate bungalow. The Sangster-Watkins-Underwood home, donated by the family of Ernie and Gwyneth Susan, descendants of the original owners, was moved from its site near Trinidad State Beach to land donated by Glenn and Janis Saunders in September 2006.

Now the beautifully renovated home, with five exhibit rooms and a display preparation and storage room, will open to the public in 2009. There will be Native American exhibits featuring the redwood canoe carved from one log by Axel Lindgren, exquisite Indian baskets, implements, regalia and a magnificent mural painted by Susan Morton of the old Tsurai Village site above Old Home Beach. Other rooms will feature natural history, historic photographs from the Katie Boyle and Gwyneth Susan collections and a Heritage Room recreating an early twentieth century kitchen.

The Trinidad Museum was founded in 1983 and has been housed in a small, inconspicuous gear shed since then. Splendid collections have been acquired over the years with inadequate space to show all of them properly. Now, there will be room for beautifully displayed acquisitions and interpretative narratives. Trinidad's rich cultural and natural history, with emphasis on Tsurai Village, Yurok traditions, European contact, the Gold Rush, whaling, fishing, shipping, logging, transportation, Trinidad Head light house, and commerce, will be told in a Trinidad home which is an historic exhibit itself.

A native plant garden, vernal pond, and pathways have been nurtured by a dedicated landscaping and garden committee and will surround Trinidad Museum with natural beauty. Later, Trinidad Library and Saunders Park will complete this oasis of learning, reflection, serenity, and beauty.