Portland - Wells Fargo History Museum

Many of the places we go were either learned about because of a field trip, or are research for future field trips; that has been the perk of having a kindergarten teacher/summer camp coordinator in the family. Often the kids get to do more things (like pretend pan for gold or get story time), so it is great when you have a good self-guided tour.

The Wells Fargo History Museum is more than just a coach,

though I do think that the way they have it set up to take your picture with the coach is kind of ingenious.

There is more to their history than banking.

So the recreation of an early bank - with check canceling and an adding machine you can try - is part of the exhibit, and there is banking history,  but after that there is information on security, ...

and different modes of transportation, ....

plus the kind of things you might ship.

There is even information on early forensics.

Much of the need for banking in the West was related to mining, so there are displays on that.

As well as a look at the history of the Chinese and how the banks served Chinatown.

There is even a tutorial you can take on driving a six-horse coach, which was very informative. (No, the box doesn't move, but there's video.)

The Wells Fargo History Museum fills a fairly small space, but there is a lot inside.

https://www.wellsfargohistory.com/museums/portland/