Ever wonder about the unknown, untold stories of good old Colton High? Right here on campus we have an amateur historian of our own, and he occasionally makes his way into the community to share his expertise. Last week was one of those days.
On Saturday March 8, 2014, Colton High Schools Assistant Principal, Victor Schiro, appeared at the Colton City Museum for all of the community of Colton to regale the community with the myths, stories and unknown history of our high school. Many of the Colton Community that was around the time Schiro’s timeline was on were in attendance to learn about the school they knew once before. Some have never heard of the information Schiro had obtained through his extensive research of the Colton community. The main topics Schiro focused on were the myths of the McIntosh building having a swimming pool on the roof, the Whitmer Auditorium being haunted, and the tunnels or bomb shelters under the campus.
The myth of the McIntosh gym having a swimming pool on its roof has been circulating through the school for decades. It was used as a prank for the incoming freshmen of Colton High who were told that if you go to the top of the gym, they would find a full sized swimming pool. Not everyone has seen the top of the gymnasium but there are pictures that show there certainly isn’t, but who can say the school didn’t have one before?
Another topic Schiro talked about was the haunting of the Whitmer Auditorium. It is true that a girl did fall to her death inside of the building, but this girl may not be the one haunting the building. Before the Whitmer Auditorium was constructed, there were four houses that stood where the building stands today. The story Schiro discovered was that deaths happened in these four houses including a murder. He believes that it is a women and baby that were murdered in one of these houses that haunts the auditorium. There is no knowing who could really be haunting it or if it even is haunted but being in the auditorium alone is definitely not something you want to do if you believe in ghosts.
Lastly Schiro talked about the mystery of the dungeon or tunnels that are said to be under the school. This rumor has been around for a while as well, but no one ever found out if there really were tunnels under the school. Some believe the school was installed with bomb shelters during WWII. There is in fact a dungeon under the school, but it located where the new math and science buildings are, so it may have been covered up during the process of constructing the buildings . . .or has it?
These so-called bomb shelters were never used so they were utilized for storage by the school’s marching band and for other materials. The reason why there would be tunnels under the school would be for connecting these bomb shelters. So you could say these would be the tunnels under the school, but are there more? Since access to these places are limited, only a handful of people have been able to really discover the truth behind these myths.
Through Schiro’s research and vast knowledge of our schools history, we are now able to uncover these mysteries. Not all of these questions will be answered to keep the spirit of them alive, but they are some great stories to tell and hear about.
