Museums in the Mother Lode

Three Acres of artifacts including a Pelton water wheel, mining equipment and an intricate working model of a stamp mill. The extensive collection carriages, carts, and wagons will remind you of when horses helped to carry almost everything.

The Calaveras County Historical Museum encompasses three separate places. The downtown Museum…

Before heading into Yosemite make a stop in Groveland to see the Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum. They have displays and 1/20th scale models of the people and places that shaped life in the Mother Lode over the last two centuries.

With a few exhibits of early California Gold Rush History this is the place to check out when you are at Ironstone vineyard for one of their many lovely events.  The astounding crystalline gold leaf specimen is the largest of its kind in the world, all forty-four pounds of it.

The museum building is an exact replica of the Rocca blacksmithy used by the family and local ranchers and is located at Jamestown’s Rocca Park and Gazebo.

Murphys Old Timers Museum on Main Street has mining displays from the Gold Rush…

New Melones Lake Visitor Center and Museum were completed as a part of the New Melones project in 1992.

More than a Museum, Railtown is an experience! While riding the train is lovely in the summer the guided tour of the Park’s working railroad roundhouse is enriching.

The Sierra Nevada Logging Museum tells the history of loggers and logging-related industries in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California – from the discovery of gold in 1848 to the present day. The 2400-square foot building has working models of sawmills and logging camps…

This Museum has wonderful displays of some historic fire fighting equipment. In the Goldrush days water was vital…

Here you will find five galleries featuring antique objects and clothing. There is the “Spirit of the Pioneer Gallery” and the “Kitchen & Laundry Gallery”.

Tuolumne County Museum & History Center Tuolumne County Museum and History Center is housed in the historic 1857 Tuolumne County Jail. It brings to life the history of Tuolumne County’s six geographical regions and tells the story of arduous treks across the Sierra Nevada both prior to and shortly after the Gold Rush.

Veterans Memorial Hall & Military Museum is the “Biggest Little Museum on War for the purpose of Promoting Peace” This museum has the usual antique guns and uniforms…

The Yosemite Valley Visitor Center is an exhibit hall where you can learn how Yosemite’s spectacular landscape was formed…