Sacramento Area Museums

Sacramento’s Gold Rush history is one of adventure, ambition, and hard work—as the city’s numerous state-of-the-art museums and historic sites illustrate. From the heritage of California’s earliest inhabitants, to the exciting times of the Gold Rush and beyond, Sacramento has played a central role in Northern California’s growth and development. Today, as the capital city of the nation’s most populous state, Sacramento continues to pioneer in cutting-edge progress while remembering its past.

Visit the California Gold Rush’s commercial center (Old Sacramento State Historic Park), and step back in time to learn about the State’s earliest residents (State Indian Museum, Maidu Museum & Historic Site) and the city’s original landlord (Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park).  Stroll about the memorials to those who perished (Sacramento Historic City Cemetery), and follow the trail from statehood (California State Capitol Museum & Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park) to development of the vast Central Valley (Sacramento History Museum, Sojourner Truth African American Museum) and the State of California (California Museum, California Statewide Museum Collection Center).

As Northern California’s transportation and communications crossroads, Sacramento has a special affinity for the Pony Express (Wells Fargo History Museum – Old Sacramento), trains (California State Railroad Museum), cars (California Automobile Museum), and planes (Aerospace Museum of California).  Home to the West’s first art museum (Crocker Art Museum), Sacramento’s art scene is continually growing (Verge Center for the Arts).  Sacramento also has plenty of agricultural (California Agriculture Museum), commerce (Wells Fargo History Museum – Downtown),  Healthcare (Don and June Salvatori California Pharmacy Museum, Museum of Medical History), science (Powerhouse Science Center Campus, Roseville Utility Exploration Center), wildlife (Sacramento Zoo) are all represented in our museums as well!