Paso Robles is a town half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This entirely volunteer-run museum aims to document life in a small Californian town during the 19th and 20th centuries.

It offers an enormously diverse range of exhibits, many of which are displayed in reconstructed imitations of stores and business from the town's history.

Highlights include a replica of the town's two cell jail, and a schoolhouse built in 1886 and relocated to the site of the museum in 2004.

The museum also hosts the Swift Jewell Barbed Wire Collection - the fourth largest collection of barbed wire on public display in the world, and the largest such collection west of the Rockies!

The vehicle collection includes a Ford Model-T and a number of horse drawn buggies, as well as a collection of antique tractors which are exhibited in the Pioneer Day parade every October.

Don't miss the penny farthing bicycle that was ridden all the way from Oakland to Paso Robles in 1891!

This is a particularly fine example of a local history museum, with exhibits donated by community members and a passionate crew of volunteer docents eager to share their love for the history of their town.