One of the great things about traveling is exploring museums. However, you don’t have to go to a big city to find a museum. Many small towns are home to great little museums. Groveland, California is a great example.

The Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum has only been in existence since 2001, but has a great collection of items that portray the history of the Yosemite Gateway area.

This first picture is from the Facebook page for the Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum. You can visit the Facebook page for information about special events and also like the page so that the notices show up in your news feed. The creator of the Facebook page is a friend of mine and granted me permission to use the picture. The rest of the pictures in the post are pictures that I have taken.

Many tourists on their way to Yosemite simply slow down through Groveland and are soon on their way again. Some will stop for a quick rest in the park, but miss out on the treat of visiting this museum.

The museum has some nice examples of taxidermy that highlight the animals that have lived in the area. Just inside the entry of the museum they have a very large California Black Bear. If you want to see a picture, visit the Facebook page :-).

Here we have a California wolverine (Gulo gulo luteus) on top of one of the display cases. The California wolverine at one time was commonly seen in the Sierras. However, they were hunted to near extinction in the early 1920’s. They are now a rare sight, although in recent years they have been seen more often.

The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is very common and is not hard to spot if you spend enough time in the country. This one looks like it is on the prowl for a nice dinner of rabbit or maybe it was on the way to raid a chicken coop.

You can see other examples of area wildlife hanging on the walls in the background of each picture.

Another neat feature of the museum is the working models of an ore mill and a saw mill. The mill above is based on the Longfellow Mill and was used to process ore from gold diggings.

Here we have a saw mill that is cutting up the large old growth trees and readying them for transport. There is still a large lumber mill near Groveland. You will pass it on the way out to Yosemite from the Bay Area and know that you are almost to Old Priest Grade and Groveland.

The museum also has a large collection of household items like these old bottles. I found it amazing to see the broad range of styles and colors that were used to bottle things up.

The engineer in me really liked the display of old tools. I remember an old hand drill that my dad used to have. It worked great, just took a bit of muscle and was sometime quicker than digging out a powered hand drill and finding power. Of course, this was long before cordless drills.

They also had examples of planes, levels and measuring and marking devices.

These are only a few of the types of items that the museum has on display. You can find more information on the Facebook page or the webpage for the museum.

Next time you are headed out to Yosemite take the time to stop in Groveland instead of just slowing down through town. It is a great time to stop and stretch your legs while visiting the museum and learning about the history of the area you will be visiting.

Steven