Fodor's Expert Review Angels Camp Museum

Learn a little bit about Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"—and Angels Camp's celebrated frog-jumping contests—at this museum's street-side facility, then head to the 3-acre spread behind it for a fascinating survey of gold rush–era mining history. The grounds include a carriage house with pre-automotive farming and passenger vehicles; another structure contains mining equipment. Outside, in its original mountings, stands the 27-foot-diameter waterwheel that powered machinery at the Angels Quartz Mine.