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CA park closing costs skyrocket due to historical artifacts

SAN FRANCISCO — Shuttering dozens of California state parks to trim millions from the state budget will take more than simply hanging a “Closed” sign on trailheads and beach parking lots. Many on the closure list house thousands of historical treasures that must be packed up, catalogued and stored if deals are not reached to save them.

The tens of thousands of items on public display paint a rich portrait of California’s past. Among them are rare crystalline gold nuggets at the California Mining and Minerals Museum in Mariposa, painting masterworks showing early 20th century San Francisco street scenes and coastal landscapes at Shasta State Historical Park, and the writer Jack London’s home and writing memorabilia in Sonoma County.

California officials admit they have been overwhelmed by the unprecedented move to close the parks, and just months before the planned closures they are working to catalog these important pieces of state history so they can undertake a massive packing, moving and storage effort should a deal not be reached. And if the state does have to move thousands of delicate items, it does not currently know how much it will cost — or how much of its projected $22 million in savings it will lose to pay for packing and long-term storage....

Read entire article at WaPo