Description
Riverside County’s Gilman Historic Ranch and Wagon Museum preserves, celebrates, and interprets the history of late 1800’s California, from the Cahuilla Indians to the exploration and settlement of southern California and the San Gorgonio Pass, including the homestead ranch of James Marshall Gilman.A particular highlight of Gilman Historic Ranch is the Wagon Museum that displays a collection of authentic wagons, including an overland stagecoach, a “prairie schooner,” and a chuck wagon. Saddles are also on display, such as one that Buffalo Bill used in his famous Wild West Shows. In addition to exploring the artifacts, visitors can gain insight into life on the Western Frontier when they read diary entries of a Kansas woman, Helen McCowen Carpenter, about the grueling journey west. Inside the museum is an affordable gift shop with unique items for purchase.On the ranch, visitors will find authentic sheds that were used for olive curing, milk storage, and carriage housing. Also nearby are the ruins of the Jose Pope Adobe house that the Gilmans lived in before their ranch house was built. Inside the Victorian style ranch house, visitors will find family photographs, various household items of the era, and other items originally owned by the Gilmans.Gilman Ranch is a terrific setting for relaxation or play, with picnic tables and barbeque grills shaded by olive trees planted by the Gilmans over 100 years ago and bordered by a green lawn that hosts a dazzling variety of fruit and nut trees, including white figs, black figs, plums, apricots, blood oranges, naval oranges, tangerines, walnuts, persimmons, pomegranates, lemons and grapefruit. Nearby are short hiking trails offering incredible views of the Banning Pass. A very short distance away is a creek that runs year-round and attracts wildlife like deer, bears, coyotes and bobcats.
