A few weeks ago I took a trip to the Vacaville Museum to experience their latest exhibit: Little Bits, Big Picture. When I arrived I was greeted by Shawn Lum, who agreed to walk me through the museum. Archaeologists recently excavated below the surface in downtown Vacaville and unearthed evidence of people living along the Ulatis creek watershed for thousands of years. In the expansive collection were mortars and pestles (holy guacamole), arrowheads and ancient fish bones. My favorite piece in the exhibit was a bead the size of a grain of sand. Just a bead you say? Nay! Local archaeologists found that the bead was made from Czech glass! That means it traveled from Eastern Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, through most of the continental United States, and to a small march village that is now Solano County. Shawn then took my upstairs to see the rest of the collection that was not on display. As we were walking, she explained to me that the museum had started as an iron collection. I was so excited to see some crazy iron swords, knifes and shields. Well, it turns out she was talking about irons…for getting the wrinkles out of clothes. After my excitement faded for the irons, I got to see some neat old appliances and electronics. Overall, it was a really interesting walk-through that told the story of the history of our beautiful town. From the primitive tools of the Patwin tribes, to the early days of clothes pressing technology, this is a piece of history you don’t want too miss.
Visit Vacaville! 