A world to discover at history exhibits

As explained in the adjacent Our View, history exhibits can be very informative, educational and thought-provoking. Case in point is the "Honoring Our Heritage: The Impact of Executive Order 9066 on the Japanese Americans," at the Rocklin Historical Museum. The exhibit is about the removal of Japanese Americans from their homes, hundreds from Placer County, to prison-like conditions in remote areas from 1942 to 1945. While it's hard today to imagine that happening, this March, it will be 80 years ago when mass hysteria led to the displacement of innocent families and individuals. This is a hard subject to talk about with younger family members but learning about it together via an exhibit makes it easier for all family members to understand. Fortunately for us, our area is rich in museums offering history. There are plenty of history options to explore, from city museums to natural history museums to utility museums. Everyone should visit the Rocklin Historical Museum at 3895 Rocklin Road. Besides the aforementioned exhibit, the museum explores Rocklin's history from the 1850s, the significance of granite to Rocklin and the country, the Central Pacific Rocklin Roundhouse, the Transcontinental Railroad, and Parker Whitney and the 27,000-acre Spring Valley Ranch. A few minutes away at 5000 Rocklin Road is Sierra College's Natural History Museum. Among the many indoor exhibits are a 38-foot-long California Gray Whale skeleton, Animals of the World, History of Life and Dinosauria gallery, and a planetarium upstairs. Outside are mining exhibits, desert gardens, a Rock Walk and sidewalk drawings of extinct creatures. While visiting the college, check out the Japanese Garden, which is a reminder of the Japanese American internment during World War II. But don't stop there. You could go to a different area museum every week and never run out of exhibits to see on topics you weren't aware of previously. If you're not familiar with the area's museums, below are some museums to add to your weekly activities. In Lincoln, visit the Lincoln Area Archives Museum from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays at 640 5th St. in Beermann Plaza. Exhibits on the area's history include the early settlers in the 1800s, veterans, businesses, schools, ranches and Gladding, McBean's huge role. In Penryn, the Griffith Quarry Museum is in the original Penryn Granite Works office built by Welsh immigrant Griffith Griffith in 1864. The museum highlights the Placer County granite industry, granite quarrying and Penryn history. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places and also has great walking trails at the Griffith Quarry Park, 7504 Rock Springs Road. In Roseville, check out the Maidu Museum & Historic Site at 1970 Johnson Ranch Drive, where Nisenan Maidu families lived for 3,000 years. The exhibits inside the museum feature Native American traditional practices, including acorn processing and basket weaving. Surrounding trails contain bedrock mortars, ancient petroglyphs, and native plants and animals. Also in Roseville, check out the Utility Exploration Center at 1501 Pleasant Grove Blvd. Besides highlighting utility systems and showing how to save energy and water, reduce waste and protect the watershed, the center offers temporary exhibits to make us think about our community as well as the entire world. Temporary exhibits include "Water is Life" in March and April and "Earth from Space" in May and June. The above are just a sprinkling of what area museums have to offer. They can provide great conversations on what we're grateful for in 2022 and what we're missing from the 1800s and even the not-too-distant 1900s. How did we ever manage without our latest iPhone version, our fastest computer and even our washing machines, dryers and refrigerators? And yet our predecessors managed quite nicely. Besides being educational, exhibits can just be fun to visit. An added incentive is that they're basically minutes from our homes. It'll be easy to add to the list of museums above to visit!