The colorful history of Calistoga is front and center at the modest Sharpsteen Museum, whose exhibits cover the town’s founding up to the early 20th century, including its time as a hot springs resort in the 1860s, and extensive dioramas show the town as it was then. The developer was Samuel Brannan, California’s first millionaire, a well-known man of many trades and an entrepreneur. One of the exhibits also spotlights Robert Louis Stevenson’s time in town. He spent the summer of 1880 living in an old mining cabin up on Mount St. Helena and wrote about the experience in the book The Silverado Squatters. Other exhibits include a simulated 1860s-era barn, a restored stagecoach, and a model of the Napa Valley Railroad. The facility is notably low tech, but that’s part of its appeal. Allow at least an hour for the full experience.
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Explore the Early History of Napa Valley
The colorful history of Calistoga is front and center at the modest Sharpsteen Museum, whose exhibits cover the town’s founding up to the early 20th century, including its time as a hot springs resort in the 1860s, and extensive dioramas show the town as it was then. The developer was Samuel Brannan, California’s first millionaire, a well-known man of many trades and an entrepreneur. One of the exhibits also spotlights Robert Louis Stevenson’s time in town. He spent the summer of 1880 living in an old mining cabin up on Mount St. Helena and wrote about the experience in the book The Silverado Squatters. Other exhibits include a simulated 1860s-era barn, a restored stagecoach, and a model of the Napa Valley Railroad. The facility is notably low tech, but that’s part of its appeal. Allow at least an hour for the full experience.
