From cowboys to frontier towns, California has a rich, exciting history. However, it is surprising that many people do not fully understand how life was in the “Wild West.” To get some more facts, try visiting the Sharpsteen Museum, located in Calistoga.
When I arrived at the Sharpsteen Museum, I was introduced to one of the docents, a very nice woman named Kathy Bazzoli. Bazzoli told me that the museum was the project of Ben and Bernice Sharpsteen.
When Ben was a boy, he would come to visit his grandparents who lived in Calistoga. Although Ben went on to do great things in his life, he never forgot all of the happy memories of family visits in Calistoga.
In 1976, Ben and his wife, Bernice, opened the Sharpsteen Museum and it”s a museum that has something for everyone. Are you an art lover? Kathy showed us some beautiful paintings by Bernice. Are you fascinated by Robert Louis Stevenson? The museum has a beautiful sculpture of the “Silverado Squatters,” Stevenson and his wife Fanny. Do you love Disney memorabilia? The museum has old Disney posters and drawings from Ben”s days as a cartoonist for Walt Disney. Does Lake County history interest you? You will be fascinated by the maps of the coach lines from Calistoga into Lake County and the black-and-white photographs of the days when Middletown was full of dirt roads and outlaws.
Book lovers will adore the museum”s bookstore; doll collectors will be trilled with the beautifully, intricate antique dollhouse. For those who love history altogether, they”ve have just found their happy place.
I also recently visited the Ely Stage Stop in Kelseyville, which makes a great companion trip to the Sharpsteen Museum. The Sharpsteen Museum has in its possession an authentic stagecoach, which actually made the trip to the Ely Stage Stop. The stagecoach is called the “California.” Several maps of the stagecoach route, which passengers took from Calistoga to Middletown and on to the Ely Stage Stop, are also on display. At the Sharpsteen, visitors can learn all about the man who started the runs between Napa County and Lake County.
The Sharpsteen is full of fascinating exhibits. The museum features two special exhibits, “Antique Tools” and “Walt & Ben: Together Again.” Antique Tools certainly lives up to its title; the exhibit displays implements such as a butter churn, a rat catcher, a pea sheller and a hog puller. “Walt & Ben: Together Again” features 135 Disney items, including the Grammy award for the film “Ama Girls,” which Ben won for Disney Studios. The exhibit also displays sketches from animated films, old movie posters and the vest that Annette Funicello wore when she was a member of the original Mickey Mouse Club.
After I explored the main part of the museum, I went over to Sam Brannan”s cottage, which is right next door to the museum. Brannan”s cottage is the last remaining cottage of Brannan”s Hot Springs Resort.
Brannan was the man who took desolate Calistoga and turned it into a popular vacation spot in 1859. He named the town (a combination of “California” and “Saratoga”). He built a dining hall, a swimming pool, a racetrack and stables, a skating rink, 13 cottages, a hotel with a dining room and a cooperage shop.
Brannan”s cottage features a dining set from the Yount family, Victorian bedroom and parlor sets, dolls and musical instruments, such as a violin and two pianos. The cottage is decorated to display how it would have looked when Brannan first opened his resort in 1859.
After our time at the museum, my mother and I went over to a new restaurant called “1226 Washington St.” for lunch. Can you guess the address of the restaurant? The restaurant has a lovely patio and indoor seating as well. The service was excellent. Mom got a veggie burger and I got a halibut burger. The french fries were wonderful. The best part of the meal was definitely the dessert, a scrumptious pavlova, filled with raspberry sauce and topped with whipped cream and fresh berries. Needless to say, lunch was delicious.
I highly recommend taking the trip down to Calistoga and visiting the Sharpsteen Museum. The museum is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are no admission fees, however, donations are appreciated.
I find it so wonderful that places like the Sharpsteen Museum are displaying such interesting exhibits and helping us to better understand California”s history. Visitors will be surprised by how much they have learned after they visit the museum. Alright, now it”s time for you to hop on a stagecoach and go down to the Sharpsteen Museum.
