Columbia State Historic Park
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click photo to enlarge |
One thing we discovered on our trip was that California has some wonderful
state parks. Unfortunately many are slated to close in 2012 due to budget
problems. Columbia is one of the best preserved gold rush towns in California.
Some of the old buildings still operate as the same type of business they did in the 1800s such as a hotel or saloon. |
click photo to enlarge |
The gold rush started in Columbia in March of 1850. In less then a month
Columbia had several thousand miners. The first year was almost the last for
the new town. Water, indispensable for mining placer gold, was in short
supply. The area had no natural streams, only gulches carrying runoff from
rain and snow. So, in June 1851, the Tuolumne County Water Company was
formed to bring water into the area. The Tuolumne County Water Company's
rates were high, the miners formed the Columbia and Stanislaus River
Water Company in 1854 to build a 60 mile aqueduct to supply the mines. |
click photo to enlarge |
After 1860, when the easily mined placer gold was gone, the town began to
decline. Then in the 1870s and '80s many of the vacated buildings were
torn down and their sites mined. Columbia's population dropped from a peak
of maybe six thousand to about five hundred. In the local cemetery there
are headstones dating back to the 1850's. The old school house is
preserved. It was a two room schoolhouse. The upper grades were on the
upper floor. |
click photo to enlarge |
click photo to enlarge |
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