Historic postcards offer tiny glimpses into the past—capturing places, people, and even everyday messages. This 1905 postcard of the Turtle Bay Sawmill reveals a time when postcards were the quickest way to stay in touch and when the mill itself was a defining feature of Redding’s riverside landscape. Discover the story behind this colorful piece of history and the once-bustling mill that shaped early Redding.
This month’s artifact—a hand-cut silhouette by artist A.H. Harrison—offers a fascinating glimpse into the Better Babies Exposition of the early 1900s. What began as an effort to promote children’s health reveals deeper stories of art, eugenics, and family history, and the enduring power of a single image to connect us to the past.
Our honorary baristas brought energy and smiles, coffee lovers stopped by to support Turtle Bay, and together we made this year’s fundraiser a success!
All of us at Turtle Bay are immensely grateful for the incredible presence of the many community members, supporters, and partners who attended our recent event, State of Turtle Bay. Lindsay Myers, President & CEO of Turtle Bay, brought our many attendees on an inspiring journey through the past, into the present, and onto the future of Turtle Bay Exploration Park.
Barbed wire might seem like just a nuisance in your backyard—or a handy tool to keep cattle from wandering—but its impact on America goes far beyond fences. From reshaping the open range of the West to affecting Indigenous lands, livestock management, and even military strategy, barbed wire earned the nickname “The Devil’s Rope.”
Discover how this simple invention changed the landscape, law, and history of the American West—and see why most of Shasta County is still considered open range.
Making memories has been the core of Turtle Bay Museum’s mission since it opened its doors in 2002 along the Sacramento River.
Twenty years later, the epicenter of science, art, history, and culture is celebrating a much-anticipated anniversary. While the museum went through initial growing pains, Turtle Bay continues to break attendance goals month after month.
We are excited to share these beautiful, green, glistening maquettes in honor of the Museum’s 20th Anniversary! Much has changed at Turtle Bay Exploration Park since these very first Public Artworks were commissioned!
Created by Troy Corliss for the opening of the Visitor Center in 2000, these maquettes, or models, are small versions of larger sculptures that now reside at the West Entrance of the Botanical Gardens and are simply and officially designated “The Turtle Sculpture”. Troy was commissioned by what was then called “Turtle Bay Museums and Arboretum on the River” to design a turtle sculpture to greet guests.
Turtle Bay’s plants of the months are the long-blooming and water-wise, small to medium shrub Salvias – Salvia microphylla and Salvia greggii and their interspecific hybrid offspring Salvia x jamensis.
“They have an elegant contrast between foliage and flowers,” says Lisa Edicott, Turtle Bay’s Horticulture Manager.
Their flowers bloom in a rainbow of colors and bloom until frost if they are occasionally “deadheaded” (spent flowers and flower stems cut off) throughout the season.
Twenty-five years ago, on April 12, 1997, Paul Bunyan’s Forest Camp opened to the public. Five thousand people poured in to enjoy the new museum and playground. This major milestone was both the first phase of the newly merged Turtle Bay and the culmination of 15 years of planning, fund-raising, and hard work on the part of the Forest Museum.
How providential that we are able to present this perfectly pleasing yet peculiar pickle paraphernalia! This is not your ordinary pickle jar! In fact, it probably didn’t hold the type of pickles we are most familiar with today – those delicious, tangy, former cucumbers. Before the ubiquity of refrigeration, jams, jellies, pickles, and chutneys preserved produce for future consumption. Victorian pickle recipes included sweet pickled cantaloupe, pickled onions, cauliflower, cabbage, radish pods, nasturtium seeds, walnuts, as well as the more familiar gherkins and cucumbers. Spiced or pickled fruits such as sour plums, blackberries, cherries, and pears were also popular. Yum!
You may think this is a horn to blow – a type of trumpet to gather the troops and charge into battle! Though these objects were sometimes used in battle, by local militiamen during the Revolutionary War for example, powder horns served a different purpose. In addition to bullets and the firearms themselves, powder horns carried another important part of the kit – gunpowder!
Long before we cozied up for a movie with a bowl of popcorn and a loved one, shuffled through our iPod playlist, cheered to a baseball game on the radio, or sheltered-in-place, folks sought live entertainment in the company of friends and strangers. It was both intimate and communal. Performances such as plays, operas, ballets – even music, magic, and comedy – took place on a big, well-lit stage. Patrons sat in a darkened auditorium. Some were close enough to see the sweat of an actor’s brow, yet some sat too far to make out important details that helped tell the story. Sporting events like horse racing also presented a need to see the action from a distance. Luckily, a series of technological advances led to an elegant solution – opera glasses.
When we first encountered this artifact in the collection, we asked ourselves what on earth it could be. The name implies that it was “medical” in nature. Patent dates indicated that it was manufactured sometime after 1919 and the overall style and materials suggested not too long after that patent date. This gadget is a “violet ray” medical appliance, once advertised to cure a multitude of ills by applying a high voltage, high frequency, low current to the human body, and by producing ozone for direct inhalation. These devices were designed to be used in medical settings and at home by the consumer.
The original idea behind Walk for Wildlife was to have a “walk-a-thon” type event to raise funds for the care and feeding of our animal ambassadors. What many people may not know is all our animals are “non-releasable,” or in other words, they can no longer survive on their own in the wild. Whether it be from human intervention or circumstances beyond their control, each one of our animals has a unique story that led them to Turtle Bay. What is so beautiful is that these animals still get a chance to show off their amazing wild abilities and educate guests year after year. Our team strives to give them the best quality life possible including time to roam around the grounds when the Park is closed to stretch their paws.
World War I, also known as the Great War, lasted from July 1914 to November 1918. It was the first time poisonous gas was used in battle. U.S. troops did not have a standard gas mask for combat, so they eventually adopted the British version. The use of chlorine gas by the Germans received widespread condemnation and the Geneva Protocol of 1925 banned the use of chemical weapons.
Sometimes, the internet is a curator’s friend. For 42 years, this Artifact of the Month has been misidentified in our records. The donor thought that her late husband had passed on to her a 50-yen banknote that he’d acquired when he was stationed in Japan during World War II. She noted in her correspondence, that it had been worth “about 20 American dollars when he got it.” When the Redding Museum of Art and History received the donation in 1978, they did not have immediate access to the resources required to verify or refute this identification, so it went into the records as “yen.”
History can be messy, and sometimes even uncomfortable, but it’s important. Learning about the past helps us understand and situate ourselves in the present. Incorporating multiple voices and perspectives only furthers and enriches the story, making us more empathetic to the plight of others and giving us a well-rounded and accurate picture of the past.
Animal skulls are always an interesting find. When you find one, you know it’s a skull. Whereas if you come across a rib bone, an ulna, or a tibia, you might not even be aware that it’s a bone or from a skeleton. You can learn a lot about an animal based off of just their skull which is why we are bringing to you a selection of skulls from Turtle Bay’s education collection. Throughout this exhibition, you get a chance to observe skulls, and even a few skeletons, up close.
Stylish and sleek, February’s Artifact of the Month is a 1960s Murray Pedal Car. Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company was originally founded in 1919 to make fenders, fuel tanks, and other automobile parts. They began making children’s toy cars in 1923 and bicycles in the 1930s. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this pedal car is the high likelihood that it was designed by renowned artist and industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, who worked for Murray from 1936 to 1972.
