Golden Drift Museum

32820 Main Street, Dutch Flat, CA 95714. Phone: (530) 889-6500

In the early 1900's a gold mining company with the name Golden Drift ran its business in Dutch Flat, California. The Golden Drift Historical Society—dedicated to preserve the local historical heritage—picked up this name. The Society also gave it to the museum it operates: the Golden Drift Museum. A museum's handout describes what it has to offer:

The Museum displays a rich photographic history of the area's towns, mining, lumbering, schools, churches, social, Indian and Chinese heritage. Artifact exhibits include Indian projectile points, fraternal order memorabilia, Chinese Joss House artifacts, mining and railroad relics. Also out for viewing and reading are many binders of information covering such subjects as Central Pacific Railroad construction photographs, Pacific Gas & Electric Company's building of the Spaulding-Drum project in 1913, Nisenan Indian history in the area, and lumbering history of the area, as well as a variety of family histories dating from the gold rush era.

“Golden Drift” is the term for a near-horizontal shaft or adit that follows a gold-bearing quartz vein underground. Drift mining differs from hydraulic mining, which was practiced around Dutch Flat and in the Malakoff Diggins area around North Bloomfield until January 1984, when hydraulic mining releasing tailings downstream into Sacramento Valley became illegal. Ask a docent in the museum and she or he will tell you all about the ups and downs of Dutch Flat's development. Dutch Flat didn't turn into a ghost town. It is a an active and thriving community today.

Golden Drift Museum in Dutch Flat

32820 Main Street, Dutch Flat, CA 95714. Phone: (530) 889-6500