Amador Whitney Museum - Amador City, California

Lillian

Amador City is the smallest town in California. Before Western settlers, the Miwok Native Americans lived in the area. The mining town sprung up around 1853 due to the discovery of gold nearby. The town’s historic Main Street now houses restaurants, brewery, hotel, boutique shops, historic buildings… and the Amador Whitney Museum. I luv this little museum. Drop on in to check out the musuem. It is free of charge, payment is donation based. They also sell postcards of photos of places on Main Street in its heyday. They are for less than a dollar apiece. Hours are posted on their website, but may vary since they are staffed by volunteers. Currently the listed hours are Friday-Sunday 11am-3pm.

The museum focuses on the women of the early days of the Western settling of the town. There were quite a bunch of remarkable women. They took on roles of miners, postmaster, business owners, farmers, and unofficial historians. The letters that many women in the early years of the settlement wrote were preserved generational and given to various museums and institutional archives such as UC Berkeley. Some displays are actual artifacts and others are replicas. The museum is small and compact. I enjoyed touring it.

Another important tidbit is that museum is named after Mr. Jerrold Whitney (1939-1992), an art dealer, that bequeathed the building to the town for a museum. Previously it was his home, art gallery, studio, and store where he showcased art including that of his partner, Mr. Clayton Pinkerton (1930-1993). Mr. Pinkerton was a talented world renowned painter that studied at the Sorbonne. He bequeathed many of his paintings to be sold to support the museum as well. Some paintings are on display at the museum. They chose Amador City to be their home in 1983. Their generosity is truly testament of their love for their adopted community. This story is also an important part of Amador City’s history that should not be forgotten.

Jake H.

As fine as the gold they pulled from Keystone mine! This museum has wonderful exhibits from the peak of gold mining in the Mother Lode. Kids love it! Ask to ring the school house bell. A gem of a place in Amador City.

bartellj

This is the smallest town in California. How small you ask? .3 mi.² small. This was a prominent gold mining town. Around $24 million worth of gold was pulled from the mining town. Today winetasting and shopping is what brings visitors in.

Valerie S.

Worth stopping in if you're visiting the area for a bit of history. Great stuff to see.

Ivanna S.

Jason R.

Claudio D. T.