Sharpsteen Museum

This quirky little place (1311 Washington St., 707/942-5911, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. daily, donations requested) was donated to the city in the 1970s by its creators, Ben and Bernice Sharpsteen, and depicts upvalley life from the days of the Wappo people to the early 1900s. Its main claim to fame is a beautifully painted diorama depicting Calistoga in its hot springs heyday, but it also has some more traditional exhibits, many no doubt enhanced by the skills of Ben Sharpsteen, who was an academy-award winning animator.

Next door is one of the frilly little cottages built by Sam Brannan in the 1860s for his groundbreaking Hot Springs Resort in Calistoga. It was moved here in the 1970s, leaving only one of Brannan’s cottages remaining where it was originally built—at the Brannan Cottage Inn on Wapoo Street.