Smith: The right combination

If you’ve begun taking online safe-cracking classes so that you can help out the Sonoma County Museum, at ease.

The long-locked No. 2 vault in the stately former Post Office building on Seventh Street, near Santa Rosa Plaza, has been opened - by Mathis Beutler and his hunch.

Beutler, a pro with Economy Key & Lock, was intrigued by the challenge created when the removal of a wall at the museum revealed a second steel-and-concrete, bank-like vault. Clearly, both vaults had been incorporated into the construction of the 1910 Post Office edifice that stood at Fifth and A streets until it was painstakingly moved for conversion to a museum in 1979.

One of the vaults has been open and the space put to use for years. Upon the discovery of the second, museum staffers called for help to open it.

Beutler stepped up. Viewing the open vault as a possible resource, he took its door apart from the inside. With the locking mechanism exposed, he was able to determine the combination of that vault.

He wondered, might both vaults have the same combination? He tried the combo on the locked vault. Presto. “I got really lucky on that one,” he said.

Inside the vault? Nothing!

So the locked-vault issue has been resolved but the whereabouts of the museum time capsule placed somewhere in 1995 remains a mystery. There’s the employee and volunteer refrigerator, but Beutler’s not going in there.

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NEVER IN HISTORY was there a better time for Bryna Haugen to share one reason she hopes we’ll all come play in the treasure hunt that heads out from the county museum at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Bryna, a Santa Rosa High senior, notes that her mom, Serena Shapiro, designed the Historic Site Cards that players will receive as they decipher the clues and arrive at each of 12 historically significant spots in the heart of Santa Rosa.

“Each of them is really lovely,” Brenna said of the cards.

The History Hunt, which she helped to create, is hosted by the new Historical Society of Santa Rosa. To register, go to historicalsocietysantarosa.org/.

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TENNIS, ANYONE? If you’ve rued the decay of the courts at Santa Rosa’s Galvin Park, you’ll want to see them now that a private-public partnership has spent $150,000 refurbishing them.

Members of the Santa Rosa Tennis Club are giddy about the singles tournament Saturday that will be followed at noon by a public celebration and tennis festival. It’ll be a ball.

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A WAR PRISONER in 1945, Darrel Shumard of Sebastopol will share tales at the POW/MIA commemoration at 10 a.m. Friday on the veterans lawn of Santa Rosa Memorial Park.

To see and hear and thank a 92-year-old B-24 pilot imprisoned after falling out of the sky is one of those things we won’t be able to do a whole lot longer.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.