Merced museum has ‘Gold Fever’

Museum-goers can get a look at how the Gold Rush transformed the Merced area at the Merced County Courthouse Museum, which kicks off its new exhibit this week.

The opening night reception for “Gold Fever! The Untold Stories of California’s Gold Rush” is 5 p.m. Thursday at the museum, N and 21st streets.

The exhibit covers stories of native ethnic groups in California as well as those coming to strike it rich, according to Sarah Lim, executive director of the museum.

“This traveling exhibit explores some of the stories that are not often found in textbooks,” she said. “The exhibit highlights the contributions made by individuals and communities from different cultures that have made California a great and inclusive state.”

It begins with the struggles among Native Americans, Spaniards and Californios for land, resources and power in the decades prior to the discovery of gold, she said.

The exhibit, which comes to the museum by way of San Francisco-based Exhibit Envoy, touches on the vigilante justice that ruled at a time when no law enforcement was present. It also includes a hands-on display of pans, animal traps, cups and other items miners used to pan for gold or carry as part of their daily lives.

“We also offer a local angle in this exhibit by incorporating artifacts from the mining days, the photos of pioneers that helped contribute to the mining economy, the post-Gold Rush Chinese settlements in Merced County and, finally, gold dredging in Snelling,” Lim said.

The exhibit is made up of 24 panels that feature photos or murals. The museum also borrowed two gold coins from 1854 and 1855, and a handwritten letter that recounts a vigilante-style hanging from Nov. 25, 1851, from local collector Grey Roberts.

Dredging may have left the most evident mark on the county. It is a mechanized process to mine for gold using what amounts to a 3,000-ton floating factory. “Quite a bit of mining was done in Merced County, actually right up until 1952, with dredging,” museum docent Herb Wood said.

The signs of dredging are still easy to find in the county, he said, particularly near bodies of water in Snelling.

Merced author and educator Eugene Hart is set to speak at the open house, which includes his presentation called “A Gold Seeker on the Merced River in 1849.”

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Merced museum has ‘Gold Fever’."