Lincoln’s Scout: Diary of Horatio Cooke, Soldier, Spy, Escape Artist

La Quinta Museum

Lincoln’s Scout: Diary of Horatio Cooke, Soldier, Spy, Escape Artist
Opening August 9.

The year was 1981, and author M. R. Cannon was performing a magic show in nearby Yucaipa, California, when things took an unexpected and fascinating turn. An 85-year-old audience member, Clara Louise Wasem, took over his show and captivated the audience with tales of her father, Professor Horatio G. Cooke, the American Wizard, who had been a Special Scout for Abraham Lincoln, an escape artist and spiritualism debunker, and a mentor and friend to Harry Houdini.

Clara Louise gave the author Cooke’s diary and meticulously kept scrapbook with a charge to share her father’s amazing story. Experience Cooke’s extraordinary life in this new exhibit!