The Museum Trail Passport Only Works on a Saturday, Until the Very Last Day

The Central Valley Museum Trail is a new passport program linking five small museums in Oakdale, Riverbank, Escalon and Knights Ferry. It ends Sunday, Nov. 1. If you collect at least four of the five stamps and turn in the passport, you get a chance at one of five gift baskets celebrating the region. The museums are close together. Their hours are what decide whether you finish.

The Oakdale Leader announced the trail on Sept. 30 and listed each museum's address and hours. Put those hours side by side and the route is already set. Only one day of the week has four of the five open. The fifth museum is open just one day between today and the deadline, and that day is the deadline.

Five Museums, Five Different Clocks

On any weekday you can collect two stamps at most. Tuesday gets you Riverbank's two-hour morning window plus the Cowboy Museum. Wednesday gets you Escalon plus the Cowboy Museum. Thursday and Friday get you the two Oakdale museums. Spread across weekdays, four stamps takes at least two trips, and the Riverbank stop has to be squeezed into a Tuesday between 10 and noon.

On Saturday, Riverbank, Escalon and both Oakdale museums are all open. They overlap fully for only one hour, 1 to 2 p.m., because Riverbank closes at 2 and the Oakdale Museum and History Center doesn't open until 1. That hour is the deadline your route is built around.

The Saturday Order That Fits

Riverbank sets the order. It's the only Saturday stop that closes before 4 p.m. Escalon and the History Center don't open until after lunch, so the morning goes to Riverbank and the Cowboy Museum, and the afternoon goes to the other two.

1. Oakdale Cowboy Museum, from 10 a.m. You can pick up a passport at any participating museum, and this one opens earliest.
2. Riverbank Historical Society and Museum, before 2 p.m. This is the hard cutoff of the day.
3. Escalon Historical Society Museum, after noon. It's open until 4.
4. Oakdale Museum and History Center, between 1 and 4 p.m. If you finish here, you can turn in the completed passport where you got your last stamp, since completed passports go back to any participating museum.

You can also mail a completed passport to the Cowboy Museum at 355 E. F St., Oakdale, CA 95361. The trail announcement doesn't say whether a mailed passport has to arrive by Nov. 1 or just be postmarked by then. If you plan to mail yours late in the month, call the Cowboy Museum at 209-847-7049 first.

What Each Stamp Gets You

The stamps send you through four very different buildings, and most of them have a history of their own.

The Cowboy Museum is in a former train depot. Its Ranching Gallery fills the waiting room of the Old Southern Pacific Railroad Station, and the original benches are still there. The museum calls itself hands-on. You can pick up the branding irons, look over the barbed wire collection, and let kids dress up in cowboy clothes for a photo on an old saddle. In the Rodeo Gallery next door you'll find trophy saddles, buckles, chaps and photographs of local champion cowboys. Visitors are invited to feel the texture of a bronc rein and listen to the bell on a bull rope. The nonprofit behind the museum has been at this work since 1995.

The Riverbank stop is in a Carnegie library. The Riverbank Historical Society and Museum occupies the city's historic Carnegie Library, which the City of Riverbank describes as one of the last Carnegie libraries built in California. The building opened in 1921 and served as a public library until 1978 before becoming a museum. It's also the stop with the shortest Saturday hours, so it goes first on the afternoon-sensitive part of the plan.

Escalon's first fire bell hangs outside. The Escalon Historical Society's site shows the town's first fire bell, used from 1903 to 1923, along with a mural unveiled in June 2009 that depicts the town's agriculture, dairy, business and railroad history. When the Escalon Times followed young visitors through the museum in April 2024, they found old-fashioned telephones, typewriters, a hand pump, school yearbooks and a Raggedy Ann doll. The Historical Society celebrated its 35th anniversary at the museum in October 2024.

The Oakdale Museum and History Center has the biggest archive. The building stands on a five-acre parcel and was built by Robert Sydnor, Oakdale's first postmaster. Inside are a Victorian parlor furnished with pieces from the Gatzman and Tulloch ranching families, a 1930s kitchen and a replica general store. The Tim Haidlen Research Room holds more than 250 bound volumes of the Oakdale Leader going back to 1884, plus tax records, school yearbooks and class photos. If someone in your group wants to look up a grandparent's graduating class or an old storefront, this is the stop where you'll want extra time, and it closes at 4.

The Fifth Stamp Is Only Available on Nov. 1

Knights Ferry is the one museum the Saturday route can't reach. The Knights Ferry History & Museum Associates open the museum to the public on the first Sunday of each month, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. October's first Sunday was Oct. 4, the weekend after the trail was announced. The next first Sunday is Nov. 1, the last day of the program.

So a full five-stamp passport is only possible if you finish in Knights Ferry on the final day. That also changes where you turn it in. On Sunday, Nov. 1, the Cowboy Museum and the Oakdale History Center are closed, based on their posted weekday hours. That makes Knights Ferry the one participating museum open that day where a finished passport can be handed in. Four stamps are enough for the drawing, so the Sunday trip is optional. It's for anyone who wants the full set.

The building makes the drive worth it. The museum is upstairs in Miller's Hall, above the ice cream shop. A 1988 history of the building says it has also served as Miller's Saloon, Shaw's Hotel, Greenhalgh Hall and a family home, and its upper floor was once a dance hall. The museum association dates the building to 1860, while the 1988 account says historians place it in 1862 or 1863 to 1864. The hall was restored in 1987 and now also houses the KF Creamery, the Read & Return Library, an art studio and gallery, and the Knights Ferry post office.

Two practical notes before you go. In March 2026, the association said the Miller's Hall elevator was out of service and it was raising money to rebuild it, which limits access to the upstairs museum for seniors and visitors with disabilities. If stairs are a concern, call 209-881-3535 to ask whether the elevator is working before you make the trip. Also, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Stanislaus River Parks page still lists the Knights Ferry Covered Bridge as closed for repairs. When the closure began in December 2022, the Corps said people on foot could cross the river on the Sonora Road Bridge instead.

Four Saturdays Left, and What Else Is on Each

Counting from today, Oct. 5, four Saturdays remain before the program ends: Oct. 10, 17, 24 and 31. Two of them have other Oakdale events going on.

• Oct. 10: Oakdale's first Fall Jubilee and Steak Cook-Off runs at the Oakdale Saddle Club Rodeo Grounds. Saturday's family activities are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with free admission, and the Lions Club steak dinner is $40, sold separately. The entrance is on D Street and parking is $5 cash per day. The museum route wraps up by 4 p.m., which leaves the Jubilee's last three hours open, so the two fit in the same day. Tickets for the dinner and for Friday night's concert were limited, and sales ended at 3 p.m. on Oct. 5.
• Oct. 17: Nothing else is on the calendar we found, so this is the most flexible Saturday for the four-stop route.
• Oct. 24: The Cowboy Museum holds its Annual Dinner & Auction, where it honors an individual or family involved in local western history. Tables and tickets are reserved by calling 209-847-7049.
• Oct. 31: This is the last Saturday the four-stop route works. Finish here and the program's final day, Sunday, is open for Knights Ferry if you want the fifth stamp.

If you're hosting family this month, the Oct. 17 or Oct. 31 route gives guests the Southern Pacific depot, a 1921 Carnegie library, Escalon's 1903 fire bell and a newspaper archive going back to 1884, all in one afternoon loop of nearby towns.

Small museums like these, run on limited hours, keep the history of Oakdale, Riverbank, Escalon and Knights Ferry where you can go and see it. If you finish the passport and want to find out more about the house or street you live on, the Tim Haidlen Research Room is a good place to start, and I'm happy to share what I know about how your part of town grew. Amy Thomas is always glad to talk Oakdale history, whether or not a move is in the picture. Let's Connect.