CAMPTONVILLE, Calif. — The church bells no longer ring in the little gold rush town of Camptonville, but that doesn't mean the church owner Bob MacDonald won’t open the doors and welcome you inside.
If you enter, don’t expect a religious experience. MacDonald turned an old Methodist Church into what he calls the Church of Curiosity.
“It’s not really a museum,” said MacDonald. “I think it’s a place of curiosity.”
If you’ve never heard of Camptonville or the Church of Curiosity, you’re not alone. It’s located north of Grass Valley up Highway 49 near the border of Yuba and Sierra counties. Camptonville’s claim to fame is being the home of Lester Pelton, inventor of the Pelton wheel.
“It was a water wheel used for who knows what. Power generation, maybe,” said MacDonald.
About 100 people live in Camptonville, there’s a school, community center, a forest service station, and of course the church and cemetery.
“If it wasn’t for the cemetery no one would even come up here,” said MacDonald.
Before it was the Church of Curiosity, it was an old Methodist Church. After it shut down, MacDonald bought it and turned it into a cabin/ rental home.
“Somebody called Yuba County, and Yuba County said 'you can’t have people living in a church.'” MacDonald said.
He couldn’t rent it or live in the church without significant improvements, but MacDonald says the county didn’t say he couldn’t turn it into a museum of sorts.
“I am not the greatest historian. I am just the keeper of the stuff man,” said MacDonald.
MacDonald inherited most of “the stuff” inside the church from his neighbors and locals like Fay Mellinger, who also gives tours of the place.
“You can come in here 100 times and never see everything,” said Mellinger.
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Other than local artifacts, MacDonald spiced up the collection with his handmade taxidermy collection.
“I like to show off my two-headed goose. A speckled goose,” said MacDonald who likes to put his own artistic flair into his taxidermy, and he’s pretty proud of it.
MacDonald’s eclectic art can be seen throughout town. On Calvin Street, you’ll find two bears driving a truck.
“It's just something out of the ordinary that will catch people's eye,” said MacDonald.
If one church wasn’t enough, MacDonald bought a second, an old Catholic church across the street. Inside is the Camptonville Historical Society’s Collection of artifacts and outside is a band of metal art sculptures.
“They are all playing music facing the Church of Curiosity,” said MacDonald, who says Camptonville is not exactly a tourist attraction.
“There’s nothing to do in Camptonville. This is it.”
He hopes that will change as his curious collection grows and more people find out about the Church of Curiosity.
To set up a tour, call Bob MacDonald at 916-844-4074
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