Wells Fargo Museum San Diego

The Wells Fargo Museum celebrates the company's history in San Diego as well as the history of banking, mining and overland travel in the early American West (Wells Fargo operates several other similar museums around the country). This one is located in the Colorado House, a reconstruction of the original that was built in 1851 by U.S. Army Lieutenant Cave Johnson Couts. The museum features an authentic 1867 Abbot-Downing Concord stagecoach, an audio-visual theater, plus documents, maps, photos, early coins and balance scales. The museum is located in the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.

Couts arrived in San Diego as part of the army contingent tasked with protecting the newly created Boundary Commission, which was going to map the new boundary between the United States and Mexico. Not long after Couts arrived, he married Ysidora Bandini, a daughter of a friend. One wedding gift was a big tract of land which Couts began using as a cattle ranch. This interested him more than the Colorado House and he leased the building in 1854.

The house became a saloon, home of the San Diego Herald, a jeweler store, and other businesses. Unfortunately it burned down in the 1872 San Diego Fire. It was reconstructed in 1992 to be included as part of the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.

"Colorado House." California Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed June 6, 2016. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=28010. "Museums: San Diego." Wells Fargo. Accessed June 6, 2016. https://www.wellsfargohistory.com/museums/san-diego.