Losing touch with history

The Sutter Buttes were to be home to a tram and a hotel whose guests could hunt wild game.

P.D. Gardemeyer and A.J. Lyon had big plans in the late 19th century for the Buttes and the community of Sutter that they established.

But the two men — along with their ambitious and never realized development project — have faded into history.

Wes Schenken, an eighth grade teacher at Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, learned that the pair who started the community are mostly unknown.

One of his "Schenken stumpers" posted in class for students asked "Who were the two founders of Sutter?" The question went unanswered for days.

"Everybody always says John Sutter," Schenken said of the California historical figure for whom the county is named, but who had little connection to the community that today numbers about 3,000 residents.

Schenken teaches world history to students — does so in a state that a California lawmaker laments leaves local history out of classrooms.

"We learn world, United States and even California history during our school years," state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, has said. "Unfortunately, many students and parents don't even know how their community or county evolved."

That's too bad, Denham believes.

"By learning local history, many of us can better understand the background from which we came," he said. "Students who learn local history may become more interested not only in school, but about the community in which they live."

Denham won passage last year of a resolution — backed by the California Grange — encouraging high schools to offer instruction covering their county's history.

Class schedules full

But the rich past of Yuba and Sutter counties — and other regions in the state — has a hard time fitting into school schedules already filled with graduation requirements, state tests and what's been called a "crowded curriculum." Gay Todd, superintendent of the Marysville Joint Unified School District, said classes cover a range of history, but none specific to Yuba County.

"There really isn't any local history," Todd said. "It is something that is lost if it's not shared with future generations."

Gary Cena, principal at Marysville High School and once a student there, remembers how a state requirement helped end a popular course on Yuba County history.

In the 1980s, students were required to take a semester of economics in order to graduate, Cena said, a state measure that pushed the elective local history course off the class schedule.

Sharyl Simmons, assistant curator at the Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County, sees another impact of government educational requirements.

Early in this decade, classes came almost daily starting in mid-April until the end of the school year to visit the county museum along Butte House Road in Yuba City, Simmons said.

But with the beginning of federal No Child Left Behind standards, she noted, the visits shifted to the last two weeks of the academic year.

"There's so much pressure on that grade level to teach to the test," Simmons said.

Region not overlooked

A course on Yuba County history seems a long shot as schools face such issues, but the region's rich past isn't overlooked.

Steve White, who teaches social science at Marysville High School, plans to spend a week in the spring after state tests end to teach the region's history.

"They do get hooked," White said of students. "We're really a history-rich town."

Macy's department stores got its start in Marysville, and explorer John Fremont established a base camp near the Sutter Buttes, White recounted.

Pete Jeffrey, who teaches at Arboga Elementary and wrote a history of the community south of Marysville founded by Swedish immigrants, said students respond to learning about their region.

"It's literally so close to home," Jeffrey said. "That's where you really see a difference where you make those personal connections."

Lennie Tate, executive director of educational services for Marysville Joint Unified, said that while local history isn't a formal course, the subject does get covered in class.

"It'll pop up here and there," Tate said. "It comes in and out."

Events in Marysville such as the yearly Bok Kai Festival and parade which honors the Chinese God of Water, can spur discussions about local history, she said.

Standards set by the state Education Department include third-grade students learning about the history of American Indians in their region. The youths are also to demonstrate an understanding of the local region's economy.

Tom Adams, director of curriculum frameworks and instructional resources for the Education Department, said that "day to day instruction is the local school board's responsibility."

He recognizes the value of community history, recalling a class he took in Redding as a high school student in the 1970s about gold mining in the region.

"That's often people's first connection with history," he said.

That past is richer in some regions than others.

Sherli Leonard, executive director of the Redlands Conservancy in San Bernardino County in Southern California, said high school students there worked with a teacher to research local Native American history that will be presented to elementary schools.

Not all of the southern part of the state has a long history, Leonard said.

"A lot of Southern California is so new — 50 years or less," she noted. "The most historical thing Anaheim probably has is Disneyland."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.