The Mammoth Museum is a small local history museum housed in a historic log cabin on Sherwin Creek Road, covering the mining and ranching past of the region before skiing transformed the economy. The collection focuses on the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when gold and silver prospectors worked the surrounding hills and cattlemen drove stock across the high passes.
For a ski and outdoor sports town, Mammoth Lakes has a surprisingly layered history — Native Paiute use of the area, Spanish exploration, the mining boom, the post-war ski development — and the museum gives a readable overview in modest space. It is not a large institution, but it is worth an hour on a rest day or a rainy afternoon. The cabin setting adds to the atmosphere.