click on the menu below to navigate this site

Skip Navigation Links
HOME
JournalExpand Journal
Art
MusicExpand Music
Films
Books
Your Care Plan
MemorialsExpand Memorials
ArticlesExpand Articles
Blogs
Email List
SEARCH

Columbia

California the golden town

Locals dress in period costume

Well summer weather is coming and going at the moment. However, sooner than later our golden California sunshine will be back. And what better way to celebrate this than to take the 125 mile or about 2:24 drive to the old gold town of Columbia, California. It is a living part of history set in the scenic Tuolumne County and framed by the Stanislaus River.

A rough mining town sprang up shortly after the discovery of gold, in this magnificent part of the Sierra Foothills. By 1852, there were eight hotels, four banks, seventeen general stores, two firehouses, two bookstores, one newspaper, three churches, and over forty drinking/gambling establishments. Miners eagerly removed, between 1850 and the early 1900s, $150 million in gold from the surrounding hills. This drove the boom of Columbia.

$150 million in gold

Ravaged by fires several times throughout its history the town managed to survive and remained independent until in 1945 when California created the Columbia State Historic Park from the remaining historical buildings. The town's claim to fame is that it never became a ghost town.

If you like early California history; then you will find walking through this living monument to it a real treat. Locals dress in period costume and help bring this long ago world back to life. Make the effort and experience this semblance of California's past today.


BACK TO TOP


® The respective authors and organizations solely own all excerpts of copyright materials used on this site. These excerpts appear herein via section 107 of the USA copyright law: the doctrine of “fair use”. David Millett asserts all legal and moral rights over all parts of all media on this site; except those parts that relate to section 107 of the USA copyright law. ©