Sacramento History Museum

Located in Old Sacramento, the museum showcases exhibits on the Gold Rush, Indigenous history, and more, offering Underground Tours and a working print shop.

Planning your visit

Sacramento was where the California Gold Rush was organised. Sutter's Mill, where gold was found in 1848, is up the American River; the city grew as the supply point and became the state capital, and Old Sacramento preserves the riverfront commercial district from that period.

The museum covers the rush, the Indigenous Nisenan and Miwok peoples who were displaced and killed by it, the Chinese and other immigrant communities who came for the work, and the transcontinental railroad that began here.

The Underground Tours are the distinctive offering. Sacramento flooded repeatedly, so in the 1860s the city raised its streets by several metres, leaving the original ground floors buried; the tours go into those spaces beneath the boardwalks.

The working print shop demonstrates nineteenth-century letterpress.

Allow ninety minutes plus a tour. Bookable options include tickets with digital city tours. Current availability is listed below.