It is a great exhibition of the history of the trail. It is well arranged and clean. I like that the information given is not lengthy. It is easy to read and follow. They did a good job with the replicas. I would recommend visiting the center. You will learn a lot about the troubles the immigrant went thru to get to California. I like that it is free admission.

A very nicely done Center with great exhibits and nice grounds to walk about. Well worth a stop

Seems like a nice museum but theyre temporarly closed I guess !!! (we were there on Sunday November 1st - possibly closed due to covid? ) even thou it says open not only on google but also at their entrance sign !! . We drove quite a ways to get there too.. I guess we shouldve called to make sure but they should also edit the hours of operation .... bummer.

We loved it here! So much to see and learn about the trails. We went in the winter and it was beautiful. Staff was helpful but not intrusive. I especially loved the Donner party and the Pioneer group comparison dramatized.

This is was such an unexpectedly awesome museum. And its free! It is hard to find interesting leg-stretching spots on the drive on Interstate 80 from Reno to Salt Lake, but this is a must stop location if you are at all interested in history. It is a really comprehensive museum detailing the California Trail which ran right through here. It is a great museum for kids with a lot of kid-friendly exhibits. I cant stress enough how well done this museum is. Very, very informative. Great bookstore as well.

Great FREE museum. Amazing artwork and easy self guided tour. Friendly and helpful staff too! Cute little gift shop with a big book selection (perfect for holiday shopping).

Very well done exhibits explaining the California and Oregon trails. The courtyard was particularly impressive as it depicted both trails in a very creative way. The modest gift shop was staffed, but the main focus was on learning about our pioneers. Very well done all around. I took lots of pictures and hope to stop by again.

What a gem! We found this simply by the interstate sign and this was very well documented and organized. I will never complain about a long cross country flight after seeing what those pioneers went thru!

Unexpectedly good place to take a break from the road. Presentation here managed by BLM is very informative and welcome.

Educational exhibits inside. Great experience for children and adults of all ages. Very informative regarding experiences of those who traveled the trails from East to West. The trials and triumphs of families, the failures and SUCCESS of the travelers of who did or did not make the treacherous journey.... ON FOOT!!! Enlightening educational experience for all. Free to public. Nice gift shop to purchase a token to rememer your visit. Highly recommended!

Great place They did an Excellent Job Displaying The exhibits

Very awesome exhibit! Free too. Bring your family. All ages will enjoy this place!

Very well put together interpretive museum and park. Interesting diorama/ displays. Well stocked, if expensive, gift shop. Knowledgeable docent/ volunteers. Plenty of parking. Clean bathrooms. Trails, an overlook, statues. A great place to stop when travelling boring old interstate 80.

This was a fun stop. It has a cute little gift shop,and restroom. The did a great job taking you through time on the California trail.

This is a great place to work learn about the history of the California trail. There are many interesting and educational exhibits. We easily spent a couple hours here, and it was a really worthwhile experience.

Unexpected find along the highway. Great facility with fantastic exhibits showing how early settlers travelled to the west coast. Worth a stop, and a good place to stretch the legs and take in some history.

Wonderful historical experience! Gives beautiful examples of what life of the pioneers must have been like.

Great informative displays, knowledgable staff!

This is one of the nicest museum and interactive center!

After hours of driving from the Sierras and miles to go before I make it to SLC, this was a delightful stop to rest my eyes and educate my mind. We were only there for about an hour and a half but well worth the stop.

The education series the center has been doing is fabulous. Both kids and adults alike can learn interesting and useful information that dates back to the pioneer days.The center itself is clean and well kept. The exhibits are informative and interactive. Highly recommended!

This was so much fun. We had a great visit. People are very kind. Most do!!

We were so impressed with this museum and it was on our go to list for awhile.

Great adventure, we backtracked 10 miles to find it-worth it!Building, artifacts, paintings all beautiful. Staff (I missed getting this photographer/former schoolteachers name ) walked around and filled us with fascinating historical lore.Worth a stop. We spent an hour and could have stayed longer.Great job there :)

Very interesting place lots of things to see

Really nice facility and a great stop for kids. I was unenthused by the heavy emphasis on the Donner Party, although we understand thar sensational story did illustrate the hardships and risks taken by those on the California Trail. The kids truly enjoyed the hands on experience, and we all liked the sign language/trading exhibit and the exhibit with Native American toys/tools and the modern day counterparts. So many opportunities for kids and adults to learn and experience trail life. Definitely make time for this stop.

This museum is a MUST SEE if you love everything ‘Oregon Trail’! Even if you don’t... so much rich history given and the gift shop is great too! You can easily spend an hour here if you take your time and read through everything! Gives a great perspective of what life was like on the treacherous Oregon Trail!

A very nice find along interstate 80 in Nevada.Very much worth a visit!

Wonderful place to stop and learn more about that area. Great idea for family to enjoy there.

Small but worth going. A great educational place. Staff dressed like the old time, she is very friendly and shared a lot of historic stories.

Several years ago, I had friends visiting from Asia and we noticed signs on the side of the road and went to the California trail interpretive center. Im so glad we did! We had so much fun! The exhibits are interactive and really deepened my understanding of what my ancestors went through as they trekked West. I also appreciate that there was some space dedicated to the history of the native people, and an honest look at their experiences. Its important to have a balanced view and I wish there were more of that.I still make it a point to stop in whenever I pass. The California trail interpretive center is a jewel on the otherwise rather boring, long drive over the 80.

It was a wonderful experience. I went with my son and his kindergarten class.

Super neat museum with much to tell about the trail. Their exhibits have buttons you can push that tell you stories as well as a room with short stories playing. Head outside to look at the wagons and items they used along their journey.

Really well done learning experience about the California/Oregon Trail. Love places that are staffed by our National Parks personnel! They are always knowledgeable and passionate about our history.

Love this museum of Americas trips to the Gold Country along the California! You can practically picture the covered wagons making this trip!

A first class BLM museum that tells the story of the immigrants along the Calif. Trail. Clean and modern with excellent displays. Easy to get to, right off I-80.

Excellent! Its a museum with outdoor exhibits and hikes. They were very welcoming and nice. Its a great place to take a quick break. The restrooms were clean.

Must visit if you are a history nerd.

Very large museum, with many interactive features for kids and adults alike. Its clear that there was a lot of thought put in to make the displays so sensory for visitors.

The best free history stop ever!

Very informative and interesting. Would stop again to hike the trail.

Very nice historical museum. Lots of interesting exhibits and out door recreations.

THE MALE GUIDE WAS VERY INFORMATIVE ABOUT THE DONNER PARTY AND RELATED INFORMATION. THIS LEVEL 6 GUIDE WOULD RECOMMEND.

What an amazing place. The staff was very helpful. The exhibits were extremely informative and well thought out. Its laid out as if you were walking the trail itself.

Extremely informative, spent a good hour or 2 in there, free to visit. Well worth a decent donation on leaving.

A wonderful, informative experience. We traveled the California trail to California. This center made our trip west much more interesting.

This place had plenty for the whole family. The history presented was top notch.

Pretty cool place. Its a good activity.

The Trail Center is a great learning experience. It gives insight into the struggles that the pioneers endured.

This is a very nice interpretive center, and believe me, Ive seen a few interpretive centers. Highly recommended!

What a great exhibition. Very clean bathrooms. All kinds of history and information on all the trails leading to California. I highly recommend stopping.

Very helpful staff. Informative museum. Much better than I expected. Great selection in gift shop. Learned quite a bit. Clean bathrooms.

A must see for families. Very educational. Love the elephant.

Fantastic center. I highly recommend it.

A lot of interesting facts that you may not have been aware of. I found the comparison of oxen, horses and mules interesting as working stock on wagon trains.

Very well done, so many awesome exhibits with alot of information! Well worth the stop!

A really nice hidden gem of a museum focused on the undertold history of the great western migration of the mid nineteenth century. The center is very human centric with stories and belongings in many expressive diaramas telling the stories those who walked from the Midwest to California and Oregon.A very worthy stop along your modern journey across Nevada.

Educational and fun place to visit. No charge to go in to the center.

It is hard for me to imagine what it must have been like to make this trip in a covered wagon pulled by horses. I mean here I am doing 75 or 80, but never over the speed limit. When I get hungry I can pull into a McDonalds and not have to hunt for chukars or wildebeests or what ever they have that lives around here. Don’t even get me started on what it must have been like to be at the party that the Donner family had. Too soon?

Excellent program. First class facility with outstanding historical displays. Very informative.

Worth a quick stop. Plus, it might be the cleanest public restrooms for a 100 miles either way.

This is such an interesting place. Its tucked away off the 80. It tells the poignant stories of trail blazers.Its exciting, somber and just so unique.The trials of people blazing trails is incredible.I highly recommend checking this out.Its free to enter, operates on donations and a really neat gift shop.The displays and dioramas are just awesome. It is one of the best museums/centers Ive seen done. Its pretty new so Im guessing alot of thought went into it being so amazing.Even has gender neutral bathrooms.Plenty of parking and fair amount of visitor traffic .Its in the middle of nowhere, and if you blink youll miss the sign. If driving 80 through northern Nevada, make sure you plan it out!

Worth seeing, hiking, and enjoying! Show some love so this place doesnt disappear.

Loved this place. Please allow some extra time there

Good descriptions of the life of trans continental Americans on their wagons west to california

Very cool place to visit. Great history and overall great place to visit

Amazing slice of western history. An incredible interpretive center that should not be missed. The most complete visual and descriptive display of the migration west I have ever seen. Outstanding.

So well done. We read story accounts on outside of entrance. Some faced you where emigrants entered valley. By the time we entered, we were stirred to see more! Life size figures and murals some with narration some in a small theater setting. ALL was very well done. Go! Take family, friends, children. As you travel Northern Nevada, make this a must see stop. A real piece of our history!.

So much information! Be prepared for a long visit if you plan to read everything, watch the videos, and hike. We spent over an hour and a half and still didnt have enough time to do it all.

A nice break from driving and checking out of History

Great stop to stretch your legs and learn about the history of emmigrants on their way to California through this area.

Free entry, very informative. Well with the time to visit.

Very nice walk through history. Interesting well put together.

Some displays almost make you feel a part of the story, very detailed information throughout.

This was a fun place to stop and take a break from traveling.

Happened to be in the area and have wanted to go here for for a long time. I was lucky to be here durning trail days so it was an added bonus!

Very informative, and scheduled fun activities but call ahead to find out dates

Great place to take kids!

Good for kids. Hands on and a cute little place

Very well done. The exhibits are beautiful and very informative. I really got a sense of the struggle pioneers or emigrants faced. I would highlyrecommend visiting the museum.

Lifelike figurines and comprehensive signage populate the large interpretive display, depicting the trials of these hardy and brave pioneers. You can almost feel the desperation as well as the hope that must have driven them.

Amazing and educational! My kids loved it and we all learned a lot!

A great place to stop and learn. If youre near here and travelling on interstate 80 toure already following the old conestoga wagon trail, so why not spend some time learning about it. The exhibits are great, with many of them kid-friendly. The movie on the Donner Party tragedy well done and chilling (though the sound coul be louder).

Friendly people and great interactive displays.

Amazing place. Must see.

My sons favorite museum.

What a nice surprise, great little interpretive center with lots of displays, about the wagon trains that moved through the area on the way to California. The Donner parties fait is explained, in a short video in the theater.

Nice little free museum providing a well needed cool (er) break from a long drive. Theres a decent amount not only about the settlers but also the Native Americans and their reactions to the influx. I was really happy to see the temporary art exhibit featuring Native American youth artwork. Definitely worth a stop. A cafe & gas station might improve it a little.

It was very educational and fun and qlso has trails to walk.

This is a wonderful educational interpretive center chronicling the emigrant trail to California. There is a museum with displays inside and outside. There are some lovely bronze statues representing native people as well as emigrants en route. There are also reconstruction of native dwellings and covered wagons, to scale.

While on my summer road trip to escape the heat of the valley of the sun and to visit family, I included stops at as many Oregon and California Trail sites as I could hit. This Interpretative centeris a great place to get a big picture view of what life was like for those pioneers.

What a gem .. we needed a break from a long drive, and it was a perfect place to pull over and hang out.. very interesting exhibits, well maintained. if our life ever takes us that path again, will definitely visit again

Real complete presentations of the trail history. Well worth the stop for adults and children.

This was a great place to take the kids for a break on a long journey. There are some toys that the emigrants used that the kids were able to play with for quite a while. Then we learned a bunch about the people that traveled on the trail. We were able to spend quite a bit of time there but still didnt have time to read and look at everything. The stories from these pioneers are sometimes heartbreaking but so interesting to see how and why they traveled.

It was one of the most important of small museums Ive been in Across the Nation

A great mini museum about the historic westward migration to California and Oregon

I love this place! This is the first about the California trail. I have always heard about the Oregon trail. So this is nice. The only complaint is the prairie dogs. They are cute animals but they carry diseases. I was surprised to see many of them only few feet away. So be careful when you take the outside tour.

I enjoyed my visit very much. Plus my dog was allowed (leashed) on the outdoor trails. They have a little gift shop. Oh, and its free. Lots of wildlife: birds, a snake, a lizard, and prairie dogs. Nice views.

Some interesting facts and perspectives I was unaware of . Not a restaurant.

So fun every one is so nice