Museums
|
|
| Rio Vista Museum
Not just a history of our quaint City, but an impeccably curated overview of the Great American Story as seen through 125 years of artifacts mined from one of its former boom towns. Inaugurated in 1976 with artifact donations from multi-generation, town-founding families, the museum’s deceptively small street portal is gateway to a deep California journey not soon forgotten. Location: 16 North Front St |
|
|
| Dutra Museum of Dredging
From bones of a Wooly Mammoth found in the Delta to original drawings, logs, ledgers and many historical photos detailing the account of the Dutras, a 19th Century Portuguese whaling family that brought sidedraft clamshell dredging to the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta in the first decade of the twentieth century, and whose operations have expanded exponentially in the last forty years to become The Dutra Group, one of our nation’s marine construction and dredging industry leaders. They now focus on major bridge and pier construction (including work on the Oakland-Bay Bridge in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989), as well as pile driving, demolition, levee maintenance, rock placement and mooring systems. The museum collection is housed in a craftsman style mansion built in 1907 and located a few blocks from downtown in Rio Vista Location: 345 St. Gertrude Avenue
|
|
|
| Western Railway Museum
They are merely legend to the young, but are unforgettable to those that that traveled by them. The Railroad lines that made it to the Great American West were the stuff of which dreams are made. They served commuters daily as much as they symbolized adventure for over a hundred years. Reverie awaits those seated in restored train-cars of yesteryear, among which are included the Western Pacific #741, which inspires images of unspoiled beauty along the Feather River Route of pre-World War I California. The California Railway Museum was created in 1960 by the Bay Area Electrical Railroad Association, and is located on Highway 12 between Rio Vista and Suisun, along the former mainline of the Sacramento Northern Railway. A section of the original Sacramento Northern Railway line is put into service as a Heritage Railway attraction for visitors. Visitors can take a 1.5 mile street car ride and/or a 10 mile ‘Interurban’ ride, picnic to live music at the shaded grounds, browse in the Bookstore and view small exhibits in the Visitor center. Also in the Visitor center is the Depot Cafe, and F. M. Smith Library and Archives which are open two days a month for research and browsing. Also available are hosted or self-guided car house tours. The museum is open on weekends throughout the year and for extended hours during the summer. Location: 5848 State Highway 12, Suisun City, CA (12 miles east of Rio Vista on Hwy 12) |