131-Year-Old Building : The Dust Jackets at This Library Really Do a Job

The first thing Trinity County Librarian Doris Callahan and her three assistants do when they come to work every day is dust their desks.

“We dust in the morning and dust several times during the day, especially when big trucks rumble by the library,” sighed Callahan, 58, who has been librarian in this remote rural county for 25 years.

The Trinity County Library is housed in a 19-foot-wide, 70-foot-deep red brick building erected in 1856, during the boom years of the California Gold Rush.

Dust rains down from holes in the library’s 131-year-old ornate tin-roof ceiling. It was a custom in the 1850s to pile a foot of dirt on top of a ceiling as a fire extinguishing system.

It is believed to be the oldest library in current use in California. It was a blacksmith shop for a year, a saloon for 60 years and has been the Trinity County Library for the last 70 years.

Callahan has been trying to get a new library for Trinity County, population 13,000, ever since she became librarian.

“Not only is the building obsolete, but we ran out of shelf space for books years ago,” she explained.

Books spill over into all manner of cardboard cartons.

“We can’t get to the books on the highest shelves near the ceiling. They are out of reach,” lamented assistant librarian Rita Hanover, 73.

Callahan, Hanover and the two other assistant librarians, Sandy Gray, 44, and Carmen Wolfinbarger, 52, thought a new day was at hand last August when California Librarian Gary E. Strong announced a federal grant of $494,388 toward construction of a new library in Trinity County.

All the county had to do was come up with matching funds.

“A library in an isolated area like this is extremely important. Many residents in the rugged mountains of Trinity County do not get a television signal. There isn’t a lot for people to do up here. Reading is a big thing,” said County Administrator Dave Andres, 32.

But Trinity County, like many rural counties, is strapped for funds.

“We don’t know where to turn for matching funds,” Andres said.

“There are no corporations or large companies located in Trinity County that could come to our aid. We wish we could find an angel or come up with one or more private grants. Time is running out. We may never have another opportunity to get that kind of money for a new library.”

State librarian Strong said he has compassion for the people of Trinity County. “I know they’re looking everywhere to find matching funds. I’m aware of their frustrations. But at some point they will have to come up with the money. We expect communities to match the grant within the year. We can’t keep hanging in there forever.”

Meanwhile, the dust keeps drifting down on the books and desks of the four librarians every time a truck rumbles by, the boxes with new books keep piling up and the top shelves remain out of reach.

And people keep coming in the back door of the library apologizing: “Oh, beg your pardon. I thought I was going into the New York Saloon.” The saloon is next door.