Entry No. 17 — the Sacramento file — filed under: history
Griffith Quarry Museum
A one-room museum inside the actual 1864 stone office of Welsh immigrant Griffith Griffith's granite works, telling the surprisingly deep story of how Penryn granite — quarried right on this hillside — ended up in Gold Rush-era buildings across San Francisco and Sacramento.
The story
Next time you stand before the California State Capitol in Sacramento or look at the foundations of Gold Rush-era buildings in San Francisco, take a close look at the gray rock. A surprising amount of that heavy stone was hauled out of a foothill hillside in Penryn by a Welsh immigrant named Griffith Griffith. In 1864, Griffith founded the Penryn Granite Works, carving massive blocks out of the earth to feed the building boom downstream.
The original 1864 master office—a single-room stone building constructed right at the pit's edge—still stands as a tiny, free museum tucked into Placer County parkland. Peering through the windows and display cases, you'll find the hand tools, ledgers, and photographs of quarrymen who spent backbreaking days cutting, polishing, and shipping bedrock before modern machinery existed.
What makes the site worth a stop isn't theatrical ghost lore; it's the quiet evidence of forgotten labor. Step outside the office and the trail network leads you right past silent flooded quarry holes and the overgrown stone-and-concrete ruins of the old stone-polishing mill, where heavy slabs were finished before being loaded onto trains.
What it's like
Pull into the free parking area off Rock Springs Road and you'll find a relaxed county park complete with picnic tables and basic restrooms. The museum sits inside the original stone office, but operating hours are limited to weekends—always confirm current schedules before driving out. Plan for about twenty minutes inside the single-room exhibit, then head onto the short park trail to scout out the stone-polishing mill ruins tucked into the oak trees.
The move: Walk the quarry park's short trail past the ruins of the old stone-polishing mill on a Saturday afternoon, then duck into the free weekend-only museum for the twenty minutes it takes to learn where the state capitol's stone actually came from.
- 📍 Penryn
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 7405 Rock Springs Road, Penryn, CA 95663
Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Alabama Mine — Stick to Penryn's 19th-century extractive history by heading less than a mile down the road to the site of this 1850s gold and silver mine.
- Ken Fox's Great Statues of Auburn — Trade 1860s granite stonework for colossal mid-century concrete sculptures hand-poured by a local dentist six miles north in Auburn.
- Coloma Jail Ruins — Compare Penryn's cut stone with another foothill survivor by visiting the heavy granite ruins of El Dorado County's 1856 jail.
Good to know
Where is the museum located?
It is located at 7405 Rock Springs Road in Penryn, Placer County, California.
Is there an admission fee?
No, access to both the county park trails and the quarry museum is completely free.
What will I see along the park trails?
The trails take you past flooded old quarry cuts, historic granite outcroppings, and the concrete and stone remains of the original polishing mill.
When is the museum open?
The museum is open on weekend afternoons, while the surrounding park trails are open daily during daylight hours.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: placer.ca.gov · visitplacer.com · hmdb.org · alltrails.com
last checked: 2026-07-20