“Thank you for teaching us a lot about the Gold Rush. It was really interesting to learn how to pan gold and fun to pretend like we were forty-niners.”      

Fourth and Fifth Grade:

The standards and expectancies for these grades can be met with a one-stop field trip to Coulterville's museum. The gold rush days and the migration to California from all over the world can be traced throughout the museum.  Fascinating displays, laid out in buildings that are over 150 years old, coupled with a visit to the Historic downtown, teach what it was like to be in the first days of California statehood. Early life in the United States can be experienced throughout the town and museum.  

A tour of Coulterville brings history to life.  Three major fires swept through the town between its establishment in 1850 and 1900, but each time the town was rebuilt and commerce continued.   A number of the original buildings remain, including the two that house the museum, the Historic Hotel Jeffery; Sun Sun Wo (an 1851 adobe building that is the last remaining building in the China town area at the eastern edge of town) and the COULTER House, built in 1857 by George Coulter.  A walk through the town’s Cemetery where many pioneers, including George and Margaret Coulter, are buried depicts the various migrations to America, with some family plots bearing ornate headstones of family members born in the late 1700’s. 

 Weaving, spinning, gold panning, and mining demonstrations are also available to help bring the past alive.