FALL RIVER MILLS, Calif. — It's not uncommon to see a barn in rural Northeast Shasta County. They are everywhere, but there is one barn — a very round barn — that means a lot to the little town of Fall River Mills.
It's located at the Fort Crook Museum and if you ask local historian Tim Glaze, he will tell you what it was used for.
“It was built to raise horses for the Army,” said Glaze.
The Army and the horses are long gone, but artifacts of the military’s past can be found inside the Fort Crook Museum.
“Everything you see here came through our area from the people who lived here,” said Glaze.
During the gold rush, miners and early settlers needed protection from thieves, murderers and indigenous tribes. So, in 1857, they brought in Lt. George Crook and named the fort after him.
“He brought peace, so to speak, to the area as much as he could,” said Glaze.
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Although the fort was named after him, Crook was only here for a few years before he was ordered to fight in the Civil War.
In 1869, Fort Crook was decommissioned and eventually destroyed, but sometime around 1910 the odd cone-shaped round barn was built in the neighboring town of Little Valley to train horses for World War I.
“We often get asked about its shape,” said Glaze. “It’s partly to keep the dust down when training horses and partly to handle the snow load and space for the hay.”
The round barn was moved to Fall River Mills and renovated in 2009. It now houses relics from early settlers, like farm equipment and stagecoaches. Just outside the round barn is the old Fall River Mills jail cell where you get to meet Uncle Bud.
“Uncle Bud Cup was one of the guys who helped built the jail but he was also the first tenant because he got caught poaching,” said Glaze.
There are many barns in Shasta County, but if you were to stop at one of them, the round barn at the Fort Crook Museum should be it.
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