Gold!

9.17.16

Columbia State Historic Park

Columbia is the coolest town!

Gold was discovered here in 1850, and by 1853, Columbia was one of the largest cities in California. 

As much as $150 million in gold was mined here. 

The town was dwindling until 1945 when it became a state park and restoration began. 

 It is a gem of living history we were excited to discover!

 

 Love this "sovereign remedy"!  I gotta get me some!

Going to the dentist is no fun, but aren't you thankful for advances in dentistry since the 1850's?!

This is the scale in the Wells Fargo office that was used to weigh all that gold!

 Bowling, anyone?

One of the greatest treasures we found in Columbia was the "Artificer's Exchange."

The proprietress is a former teacher who now has a new venue for sharing her knowledge,

and we LOVED learning from her!!

She taught us about the history of the town, the history of photography and its importance in the

Gold Rush, what the length of a lady's dress in the 1850's represented, how flax was made, and more.

She has AG dolls that she renames for girls who lived in Columbia, and she makes their historically accurate clothing.  She suggests making a family historical doll, complete with stories of the American Girls in our own family history.  What a great idea!

This is a tintype she showed us... We think it looks just like our friend Claire!  :)

Oh!  She also told us how to tell if the child in a photo from this era is a boy or a girl,

 when boys and girls both wore dresses, sometimes very frilly dresses...

 Do you know how to tell?

 After we saw our friend Claire, we saw this doctor with a great last name!  :)

...and here is his house...

 

 This was a representation of what the town looked like as it was going up...

Almost all of the original buildings were made of wood until they were destroyed by a fire in 1854.

The buildings were rebuilt with brick.

Getting water to the town was a major engineering feat,

important both for fire protection and for gold mining.

Unfortunately, the miners blew away much of the dirt and gravel,

exposing this limestone and destroying farms in the area.

 We experienced almost an hour of school at the school house.

That was plenty!  The teacher was really stern.

In the photo above, she was using my baby to explain how girls would be whipped on the legs...

so they could still do the housework when they got home.

Ellie received no actual whipping... Good thing!

With her papa bear & mama bear right there, I'd fear for that teacher...  ;)

After school, we got to play games,

and these sweet ladies gave us homemade sarsaparilla ice cream!

We loved living in the gold-rush era for a day!

Thank you, Columbia!