OT: What historical place(s) do you bike/live near?

[Deanna]

We've got quite a few in my area, most of them are related to regional or state history.

Luther Burbank Home & Gardens
http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/default.aspx?PageId=708

Jack London State Historic Park
http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=478

Fort Ross
http://www.fortrossstatepark.org/

The town of Sonoma was the location of the Bear Flag Revolt:
http://www.californiahistory.net/5_P...war_revolt.htm

There are quite a few smaller sites, many of the wineries in the area have historic buildings.

[RolliePollie]

I live near the Marshall Gold Discovery Site in Coloma, CA. This is where the Gold Rush began when James Marshall found gold there in 1848.

http://www.coloma.com/gold/

The old Gold Rush town of Placerville, also known as Hangtown, has a neat old downtown with lots of history, including Hangman's Tree Tavern, which, if you look closely at the picture, has a man hanging from a noose out front (Tacky? Perhaps. Unique? Definitely!):

http://www.brightbill.net/cgi-bin/su...e-site?site=43

Lake Tahoe has some interesting historical sites as well. Vikingsholm is a neat old stone "castle" on Emerald Bay. Have not been there yet, but I hear the old Thunderbird Lodge is pretty neat as well.

The Lake Tahoe Visitor's Authority even has a cycling section on their web site:

http://www.bluelaketahoe.com/visitor...on.php?s=5&l=2

[margo49]

About 7 km from home is an tiny archeological museum with finds from a neolithic civilisation which flourished in the area in the 6th millenium BCE. It was "discovered" and excavated in the 1940's.
They were an interesting lot with a fertility type religion involving those clay woman figure sculptures like you find all over with the huge t*ts and tummies and spread legs.