The R.C. Baker Memorial Museum in Coalinga, California, is a gem.
Housed in the former home of the Baker Oil Tools machine shop, donated to the city by the Baker Foundation in 1958, its collection ranges from ancient fossils (the San Joaquin Valley was once a vast inland sea) to Native American artifacts, Western ranch hand equipment, early 20th-century business and household items, a 1924 American La France fire engine, and a large collection of oil field equipment.
For anyone interested in early twentieth century architecture, the must-see is a beautifully restored 1930s Richfield service station.
Eighteen minutes southwest of the Harris Ranch exit on I-5, Coalinga grew up around and got its name from the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Coaling Station A. In addition to the R.C Baker Memorial Museum, it is home to an annual, three-day Horned Toad Derby, dating from 1935, and the WHAMOBASS Balloon Rally, the longest consecutively running annual hot air balloon rally in the world.
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