Albinger Archaeological Museum — Attraction in Ventura

I've been meaning to visit this museum for years, but I just never seemed to be there while it was open... so when looking for something to do on a summer's day with the kids... this spawned a day trip to Ventura!

With easy parking just across the street, we parked (where one would normally park for the Museum of Ventura across the street... another fabulous museum if doing things with kids) and happily ventured towards the "open" sign of the museum.

Truth be told, I wasn't sure exactly what this museum was, and we walked in and discovered a relatively small room with various artifacts from several eras... But the SUPER cool thing about this museum is that everything in was estivated by archeologists at this location in a pit (that you can still see) back in 1971!

Apparently, after an auto mechanic went out of business and they started getting ready for what came next, they started discovering artifacts... and it kept going and going! What's so cool is that they uncovered artifacts from several different eras and cultures the further down they went! As far as I-forget-the-year BC! But then later the Chumas, the Spanish, the Mexican's, the early American's, then the Chinese! It's super cool to see all these different artifacts from different cultures all discovered in one place! It years makes you think about what lives beneath our feet.

Hedge expectations... it's small, but it's also FREE and as a general rule, I always give free museums five stars! Depending on how much you want to read, it's not going to take you too long to get through the museum... there is that one small room, and then you can go out back, see the pit and some various other spots they're set up... all in all it'll take less than an hour... but I love stuff like this! Apparently there are more museums in the US than Starbucks... so I really appreciate small museums.

It's RIGHT in downtown Ventura, so it's easy to make a day of it. There are tons of restaurants, shops, the museum across the street and even a new arcade! The museum gave us a map of historic Ventura buildings and we did a bit of our own walking tour, but we actually (I don't know if I'd recommend this all in one day) walked all the way to the botanical gardens and did that after! That's a bit of a walk, and while I absolutely recommend visiting there... that might want to be its own day where you park in the lot.

Definitely...

Had a lovely time here. You can learn about the history and pre-history of the place, who lived there, what they did, and what became of them. The gal at the front was super knowledgeable about history and archaeology (and lots of other stuff). If you're in this part of town, check out...

Call the Museum of Ventura County, across the street, to verify it will be open. Free Admission. An entire museum dedicated to what was uncovered from the excavation of the city block. From prehistoric, Chumash, Spanish, Mexican, European, to present. Endless display cases...