Changing Exhibits

A Look at Local Logging

A Look at Local Logging (August 27, 2024 – January 5, 2025) is a photographic exhibit in the Lower Rotunda. Redwood forests have been a part of San Mateo County’s natural landscape for centuries. Now appreciated for their beauty, redwood trees in the 1800s were most valued as building materials. The eight photographs tell the story of the loggers and mills whose lumber was used to build town from the Peninsula to the Central Valley.

Below: Felling a tree, c. 1860.
Loggers in the 1860s pose by a tree that they are cutting