Wells Fargo Museum, Sacramento

While many of us know the Wells Fargo brand as one of the Big Four Banks in the United States, the company has a long and storied past closely linked with the Wild West. For the first 60 years of the company's existence, starting in 1852, the two most important services the company offered were banking and express. Express service meant shipping customer's valuables from one point to another as quickly as possible, and in the West, this usually meant via stagecoach, train, or steamship. Valuables were put in safes or distinctive green wooden treasure boxes that rode under the stagecoach driver's feet. Wells Fargo actually delivered more mail in the West than the US Postal Service did for many years.

Wells Fargo operates 12 history museums at various locations around the country, including two in the Sacramento area. Their collection of artifacts from the gold rush days includes a fully-restored Wells Fargo stagecoach from 1866, built by Concorde. The exhibit focuses on mining, as well as the early days of settling the rural west. Gold nuggets, riffles, and the tales of outlaws tell the story of those early years. Learn about the "brave and determined" individuals who guarded the legendary green treasure boxes.

Situated in the five-story atrium of the Wells Fargo Building at 400 Capitol Mall in downtown, the Wells Fargo History Museum has free admission. Despite the surprising location in the bank lobby, the museum is surprisingly extensive. You should allow yourself some time to take it all in.