northern mariposa county history center

Fascinating museum located in historic building in a town that escaped moderization...a living, breathing ghost town! Relics and photos are all from local area from the gold rush era. Even the building is from that era!

This wonderful, FREE museum was a pleasant stop as was a walk through the tiny "old west" town. We felt that we had stepped back in time a century of two! The docent that welcomed us provided many tidbits of local lure that added so much meaning to the displays!

We enjoyed visiting this historical landmark to learn more about the local area. The docent was very knowledgeable and shared with us about the history of Coulterville, the buildings, and the surrounding areas.

I actually live in Coulterville, and that's a picture of the historic Hotel Jeffery. This little town has a great big heart.

A great source of history about the town & surrounding areas. Also has a wonderful photographic history of town from back in the gold rush

This tiny museum is located in the "official" historic and picturesque town of Coulterville...a slice of the old west!Photos, working models and all sorts of local family heirlooms really gave me a deeper impression of what it was like to live during the Gold Rush and subsequent "early days" of rural California than many larger, more impersonal museums have. The docents were terrific and I learned that many of the families that helped settle the west still live in the area. The museum and a walk around the entire town, including Sun Sun Woo...a real adobe store with 2 ft thick walls that is all that remains of a Chine town that used to have a population of about 5000 Chinese laborers... took about 2 hours. We had a great lunch at a real old western bar across the street at the Historic Hotel Jeffrey's Magnolia Saloon and I found a wonderful antique bowl just across the way at the Rose Cottage Antique Store then topped the afternoon off with an ice cream cone from the Mooshine cafe, where I and my family all added our names to the hundreds from all over the world adorning their bright yellow walls. A wonderful stop on our first trip to the Gold Country!