the joy of establishing a museum is to be able to educate and to share it with as many people as possible.

What Are We All About?

The Gold Country Medical History Museum is located on the site of the first Placer Country Hospital, established in 1855. Located just below the Placer County Courthouse, this stately Victorian has been restored to highlight its medical roots. The museum displays an ever-growing collection of vintage medical, pharmaceutical, nursing, and dental artifacts dating from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s. This non-profit museum was established to be educational and interesting to visitors of all ages and interests.

The museum includes enticing (and a bit bizarre) displays of unusual quackery devices, vintage diagnostic tools, a large array of pharmaceutical bottles and medicines, doctor bags, bedpans, vintage hearing aids, glass eyeballs, an ether machine, a real wooden leg, handmade crutches, and an actual human skeleton, all displayed in and around massive century old cabinets that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. A dental display includes a century-old, foot-pumped dental drill, dental tools displayed in an antique dental cabinet, and an early 1900s dental x-ray machine. There is also an operating room display, complete with surgical instruments.

Museum wall displays include the history of early medicine, original quarantine signs, and photos and information about early local area hospitals and sanitariums as well as some pioneering local doctors, dentists, and pharmacists. An authentic doctor’s buggy is housed in a carriage house adjacent to the museum.

The joy of establishing a museum is to be able to educate and to share it with as many people as possible

Our Hours:

The museum is open Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We are closed from the last Saturday of October to the second Saturday of April. During the winter months we are able to open for privately arranged tours.

The museum can also be opened during the week for private or school groups by appointment. A “traveling medicine show” can be arranged for schools, libraries, hospitals, nursing homes, and other historical groups. Contact museum curator, Rod Moser, PA, PhD, at rodmoserpa@gmail.com .

OUR DOCENTS:

The museum is staffed by knowledgeable, volunteer docents. Many are nurses, pharmacists, physicians or physician assistants, others are history buffs.

We always need additional docents willing to staff the museum for about 4 hrs a month, especially people who may be retired from the medical profession. Our goal is to be open more days, especially Sundays.

We are constantly enriched by the experiences of others in our historical community. We also collaborate with other museums to share ideas, resources and exhibits.

donations:

We do not charge admission but will graciously accept monetary donations or grants. Donations or loans of interesting or unique medical, dental, pharmaceutical or nursing artifacts for our changing displays are also appreciated.

The museum is part of the Old Town Auburn Preservation Society, a public benefit corporation, EIN 75-3107505. Monetary and artifact donations to the museum are tax-deductible.

heritage trail museum tour

The Gold Country Medical History Museum is proud to participate in Placer County's yearly Heritage Trail Museum Tour featuring museums from Roseville to North Lake Tahoe. It's a great way to explore the rich history of our valley, foothills and mountain areas.

FEATURED DISPLAYS

Coming soon.

Watch this spot for special display announcements. For now enjoy our extensive collection of medical quackery, the wild, wild west of medical treatments. Unregulated, unproven, but advertised to cure anything and everything.

Considering an artifact donation?

Requesting a scheduled group tour?

Thinking about joining our docent team?

Have an hours or location question?