Museums & Galleries in Clearlake

The nonprofit Heidrick Ag History Center harvests the rich history of agricultural machinery and transportation through an extensive collection of vintage tractors and trucks. The 130,000-square-foot space houses both the Hays Antique Truck Museum—home to such artifacts as a one-of-a-kind Breeding steam-powered truck and broccoli steamer from 1916—and the Fred C. Heidrick Antique Ag Collection, an assemblage of olden-day iron horses and golden cows collected over a period of 60 years.

Using skills acquired from his childhood days building his own planes and combines from scraps of wire and wood, Mr. Heidrick himself restored most of the equipment—some of which was formerly little more than heaps of rust—to its original condition. Palettes of green, red, and yellow pop from John Deere tractors from the 1930s to the 1950s, a Deering reaper machine from 1891, and a 120-horsepower Holt built in 1917 to tow artillery during World War I.

A 166-square-mile valley that encompasses forests, grasslands, parks, and vineyards, the Sonoma creek watershed teems with biodiversity. The conservationists behind Sonoma Ecology both sustain and unveil this region to visitors through education, restoration, and research programs that range from youth science camps to sustainable gardening. Through these efforts, they preserve lands such as the Sonoma Overlook Trail, a 3-mile walking path that leads hikers and traveling minstrels past native plants and animals, including California freshwater shrimp, chinook, and endangered steelhead trout running up the valley's boulder-strewn rapids.