Our monthly programming, unless otherwise noted, is free and open to the public. Through guest speakers spanning across a wide range of local historic expertise and lore, we bring the stories of the past to life.
Scroll this page to check out the details of our upcoming summer events below – and be sure to mark your calendars and bring a friend!
Tuolumne County Underground Goods
with Jerry Culver
May 14, 2025
Date: May 14, 2025
Time: 6:00 pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Cost: FREE!
Location: Tuolumne County Library, 480 Greenley Road, Sonora CA
Are you a fan of metal detecting? Spend hours on end skimming your detector across the soils of our county? Join us for an insightful discussion with Jerry Culver and hear about some of the discoveries he’s made on and under the soil for the last 60 years!
Beardsley Hike (members only)
with Ross Carkeet
June 7, 2025
Date: June 7, 2025
Time: 9:00 am
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: FREE!
Location: Beardsley Reservoir Rd, Long Barn, CA 95335, United States
NOTE: This hike is limited to 20 museum members. Call Brad at (209) 532-1317 to reserve your spot.
Join us for another rousing hike with Ross Carkeet and learn more about the historic Sugar Pine Railway and its journey from Beardsley Reservoir to Spring Gap. This will be a fairly level round trip hike of approximately six miles.
Bring all of the hiking essentials along with your lunch (and plenty of water) where we’ll hopefully find some blooming dogwoods to eat our meal.
If you are not yet a member and would like to join us for this hike, you can complete a membership application online.
El Campo de Sonora: A Cultural Tapestry
an event by the Sonora Chamber of Commerce
June 7, 2025
Date: June 7, 2025
Time: 2:00 – 8:00pm
Cost: FREE!
Location: Courthouse Square
Get ready for a fun day of entertainment at the park! A multicultural event celebrating the vibrant, colorful tapestry of cultures of 175 years ago… Featuring music, dancing, storytelling, cultural crafts, vendors and the history of our indigenous people, and various nationalities and ethnicities.
We’ll be hosting a booth for the Museum as well as another celebrating the 175 year history of Tuolumne County. Find us right next door to Downtown Shoes!
Cultural Entertainment lineup:
The Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Dance Group
Black Irish Band
Gun Powder & Lace Historical Play
Long Fist Kung Fu Association Lion Dancers
City of Sonora Historian, Pat Perry
Mark Twain
Humana Indígena Chicana Cultural Offering and Dance
Columbia College Folkloric Dancers
The Motherlode Black Heritage
Community Mixer & New Exhibit Reveal
A Sonora Chamber of Commerce Mixer hosted by the Tuolumne County Historical Society
June 17, 2025
Date: June 17, 2025
Time: 5:30 – 7:00 pm
Cost: FREE!
Location: 158 Bradford Street, Sonora
Tuolumne County Historical Museum + Courtyard
Join us in the beautiful courtyard when we host the Sonora Chamber of Commerce’s monthly mixer. This event is open to the community and our valued members. We are excited to unveil our two new exhibits, including the hands-on Children’s Corner. More details to be shared soon. Special discounts on purchases in the museum will be offered to those who attend, as well as a raffle of things from local businesses.
Gunpowder Man
A one-person play by Rick Foster and performed by Lesly Tejero Baker
July 9, 2025
Date: July 9, 2025
Time: 7:00 pm
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: FREE!
Location: 158 Bradford Street, Sonora
Tuolumne County Historical Museum Courtyard
This event will be in the courtyard and we will provide as much seating as possible, but it is recommended to bring lawn chairs/picnic blankets and snacks.
Come enjoy a summer evening performance in the courtyard behind the museum! The Tuolumne County Historical Society is thrilled to host a performance of this highly acclaimed play by Rick Foster and performed by Sonora’s own Lesly Tejero Baker. Gunpowder Man tells the story of Chinese people who fled the catastrophic end of the Taiping Rebellion, helped build the transcontinental railroad, settled in the US, and endured racist reactions of the 1880s.
Though the contribution of the Chinese to the Central Pacific Railroad is fairly well known, the story is a dramatic one that bears retelling. Moreover the conditions in China that did much to push the people from their homeland are less widely know here.
Gunpowder Man is dramatic, filled with fascinating and little-known cultural and historical details, often funny, and portrays one wonderful, spunky woman’s struggles and triumphs.
Learn more about this powerful play and Duende Drama, the organization making it available: https://duendedrama.org/