How do state parks protect California’s cultural heritage?

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State parks are responsible for the preservation and protection of much of California’s history and culture. Of the state’s 278 parks, 235 contain significant cultural features, representing the wide diversity of California’s population in traditional tribal buildings, historic structures and communities, prehistoric archaeological sites and cultural landscapes. The state parks include missions, forts, ghost towns, cemeteries, churches, temples, lighthouses, gold mines and much more.

The state parks system is responsible for 1 million museum objects, more than 3 million archival documents and 2 million archaeological specimens. Farming equipment, botanical specimens, tapestries, Californian basketry, wagons of all types, stone tools and fine art can all be found in park collections.