10 Best Sights in Sacramento and the Gold Country, California

Learn a little bit about Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"—and Angels Camp's celebrated frog-jumping contests—at this museum's street-side facility, then head to the 3-acre spread behind it for a fascinating survey of gold rush–era mining history. The grounds include a carriage house with pre-automotive farming and passenger vehicles; another structure contains mining equipment. Outside, in its original mountings, stands the 27-foot-diameter waterwheel that powered machinery at the Angels Quartz Mine.

Sprawling over three floors, this museum celebrates the history of trains from their 19th-century English origins to the pre–jet age glory days of rail travel. A permanent exhibit details Chinese laborers' contributions to the transcontinental railroad's completion (Sacramento was the western terminus). Another section contains one of several gold spikes issued to commemorate the joining in Utah of the west-to-east Central Pacific and east-to-west Union Pacific lines.

Up to 21 of the museum's railroad cars and engines—among them Pullman-style cars and steam locomotives—are on exhibit, and there are interactive displays and a play area for kids. Two nearby affiliated attractions (both free) worth a peek if they're open are the re-creation of the circa-1876 Central Pacific passenger station (930 Front Street) and the Huntington, Hopkins & Company Hardware exhibit (113 I Street), a facsimile of a 19th-century hardware store.

This gigantic space north of Davis in Woodland provides a thorough historical overview of motorized agricultural vehicles through dozens and dozens of threshers, harvesters, combines, tractors, and other contraptions. A separate wing surveys the evolution of trucks, emphasizing those used for farmwork.

More than 150 vehicles—from Model Ts, Hudsons, and Studebakers to modern-day electric-powered ones—are on display at this museum that pays tribute to automotive history and car culture. Check out a replica of Henry Ford's 1896 Quadricycle and a 1920s roadside café and garage exhibit. The museum is south of Downtown and Old Sacramento.

Showcasing longtime and temporary residents who helped elevate the Golden State, this museum contains permanent exhibits covering statehood, the experiences of California Native Americans, life for Japanese Americans in World War II internment camps, and the impact of women. The California Hall of Fame honors Walt Disney, Jackie Robinson, Bruce Lee, Amelia Earhart, writer and Sacramento native Joan Didion, and other familiar names.

A California state park, the museum has displays on gold-rush history including a replica hard-rock mine shaft to walk through, a miniature stamp mill, and a 13-pound chunk of crystallized gold.

Inside a former powerhouse, the museum displays a 32-foot-high Pelton Water Wheel said to be the largest ever built. The wheel, used to power mining operations, was a forerunner of modern turbines that generate hydroelectricity. Other exhibits document life in the mines and the environmental effects mining had on the area. You can picnic nearby.

Visible from the highway, Auburn's standout structure is the Placer County Courthouse. The classic bronze-domed building houses the Placer County Museum, which documents the area's history—Native American, railroad, agricultural, and mining—from the early 1700s to 1900. Look for the gold nuggets valued at more than $338,000 today, and don't miss the women's cell under the Maple Street staircase.  Ask about other nearby county-run history museums.

A pandemic-era video campaign revolving around this museum's antique printing presses went viral, making a TikTok star out of a longtime volunteer named Howard. Other exhibits investigate Sacramento's gold-rush past and agricultural, economic, and political evolution. A must-see third-floor stop provides insights into the life of a 12-year-old girl through personal belongings discovered in a trunk a century after her death in 1879. The museum's Old Sacramento Underground Tours, booked separately, explore vestiges of the city before floods wreaked havoc in the 1860s and 1870s and many buildings were raised a story or two higher.

Adjacent to Sutter's Fort but run separately, this small but engaging museum explores the lives and history of California's indigenous peoples. Arts-and-crafts displays and other exhibits portray the state's earliest inhabitants.