Ferndale Museum in Ferndale, California, preserves the history of the lower Eel River Valley and nearby communities from Gold Rush-era settlement to the present through artifacts, newspapers, family records, photographs, and period displays of everyday life. Founded on September 22, 1979, it supports research in genealogy and local history and documents farming, ranching, lumber, dairy work, nautical history, Native American basketry, and early oil drilling at Petrolia. Its collections include paintings by Stephen William Shaw and photographs by Edna Garrett. Among its most distinctive features are an active Bosch-Omori seismograph from Ferndale’s former earthquake station and a complete nineteenth-century blacksmith shop from Table Bluff.