It's On!

The date for next year's Heritage Trail

 has been set! 

and yes, you are invited.

The Heritage Trail may be over but it's not forgotten!

Just in case you missed traveling the trail this year, click on the photo below to see a great writeup with photos on Mike Southwick's blog.

photo by Mike Southwick 

If you have a post about your weekend drop our web guy a link at jadair@placer.ca.gov.

Whew! We made it!

Our fifth Heritage Trail weekend went off without a hitch, unless you count temperatures above 100 hitchy. Even though the weather was hot, the history of our 18 museums proved to be hotter as we had big crowds all over the county. We're gathering up all the Get up and Go cards that were turned in and will be drawing winners as soon as we can. Thanks to all our sponsors, volunteers, and car tripping history lovers it will go down in history as yet another in a long line of Heritage Trail museum tours!

Birds Eye View of Auburn

Bright and early this morning, KCRA 3 climbed to the top of Auburn's Historic Courthouse to do a promo spot for the Heritage Trail. In case you missed it, click on the photo below.  

If you're into planning your Heritage Trail weekend for maximum museum touring efficiency, download the PDF of the guide below by clicking on the graphic or the link.

Download Trail Guide

Art Show at the Bernhard

The Foothill Quilters Guild and Placer School for Adults watercolor class are putting on a shared show at the Bernhard Museum winery. While you're checking out our 1890's house museum don't miss the opportunity to pop into the winery and see our exhibition of arts from 2012.

Alma Bell is in Jail

Beneath the north steps of Auburn's Historic Courthouse sits the old women's jail. During the Heritage Trail weekend this cell is transformed from a display into living history. Three outstanding docents, Joanie Maxwell, Daphne Lake and Rebecca Deniston (pictured below) will be dressing up and impersonating one of Auburn's most notorious murderers; Alma Bell.

The Baskets are In!

 

The Get up and Go baskets have been filled to the brim and brought to the courthouse. Two are filled with goodies from participating museums and one is filled with great stuff from the merchants of Old Town Auburn. The only way to get your hands on one of these baskets is to pick up one of these blue cards at the first museum you go to, get it stamped at four different museums and hand it in.

If you want to have a better chance, visit eight museums, or twelve, or sixteen. Heck, if you're going to go to sixteen you might as well do all eighteen.

Heritage Trail Hotel Deals

Placer Valley Tourism has put together some deals on hotel stays for the Heritage Trail weekend. So if you're from out of town and want to have a serious chance of making it to all 18 museums come up and stay the weekend. For more info click here.

Strike It Rich! at the Gold Country Museum

For this year's Heritage Trail we've whipped up a gold rush themed game that gives kids and adults a chance to "Strike it Rich!" A snapshot of the game board and a few of the tokens are below.

Visitors will have a chance to play similar odds as the original miners who came west seeking their fortune, which is to say odds are on contracting diseases, and going broke. But someone has to strike it rich and who knows, it could be you.

We'll be running the game all weekend in the saloon.

Sponsor Roll Call

To put this event on takes a lot of resources. In addition to all the museums, below is a list of great sponsors who have stepped up to make this whole thing possible. 

Thanks so much!

Tonight, August 1st at 6:30pm, Melanie Barton and Anita Yoder will be on Gerry Lyons show "News and Views." The show airs on Wave Broadband channel 4. They'll be there to answer all questions about the Heritage Trail Weekend. If you'd have a question you'd like to ask, give them a call tonight at 916-624-5333

The Goldhounds are Coming!

One of the best events of last year's Heritage Trail is going to be making a repeat performance at the Gold Country Museum. The Mother Lode Goldhounds are going to be setting up their gold mining  gear out on the front lawn to give lessons in various gold getting methods. If you're looking for some firsthand experience on panning, using a long tom or sluice box come on down. Be warned though, if you haven't been properly inoculated chances of contracting "gold fever" are extremely high.