Tools That Built America
By Mia Rotell
Perris’s agricultural foundations and Native American roots have been forgotten and left in the past. Bountiful farmlands and Native American stomping grounds have been bulldozed and turned into shopping centers, streets, and residential districts.
In 1964, the city turned the historic Santa Fe Depot into the Perris Valley Historical Museum and Association to educate and honor what once was. The city of Perris has been established for 134 years, and its population has almost reached 100,000.
Its latest exhibit, which opened last Saturday, showcases tools from the early days of Perris. It stands tall among all the other artifacts collected over the years, which include a small schoolhouse mock-up, a candle-making station, and another exhibit that even provides a glimpse of what Native American life was like before the settlers.
Exhibit curators, Paul and Kathi Price, spent the past six years creating the new exhibit, “Tools That Built America,” to highlight various axes, pickaxes, and many other vital tools that were used to build the city from the ground up.
“Bringing these exhibits to life is actually very important,” attendee and county government employee Ashley Montuoro said. “It’s important for people to know their history, and I think it gets overshadowed sometimes.”
Montuoro believes that educating children and residents on artifacts from the past serves as cultural preservation and allows new and old generations alike to have a connection to the past.
“(Paul) is so knowledgeable and has brought a lot of history to our city,” said city of Perris Mayor Michael M. Vargas. “I highly recommend that people come to the museum here and look at the artifacts and read the history that’s behind it.”
Vargas led the ribbon-cutting ceremony with the people who helped make the exhibit a reality under Kathi and Paul’s professional design and curation of the exhibit.
“(In the exhibit) there are a lot of hand tools that you find around the ranch,” said museum volunteer Marie Spradlin about the exhibit. “It’s interesting. I think school kids coming through here should get a lot of education out of it.”
Along with the curation and preservation of the tools, the ribbon-cutting ceremony gave a nod to Native American customs. The Los Amos tribe performed various dances, like the Grass Dance, which a chosen man did to bless the ground before the tribe would settle into a new area.
In an attempt to preserve cultural history and help residents remember the city’s history, traditional Mexican dances were also performed, like the Mexican Hat Dance.
The new exhibit officially marks the museum’s completion, and with that, museum volunteers and exhibit curators encourage everyone to stop by, take a look, and learn something. The Perris Valley Historical Museum and Association is open from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Call (951) 657-0274 for more information about the exhibit, hours of operation, or to ask any questions.
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