Columbia

by Friends of Columbia State Historic Park and The Friends of Columbia State Historic P

Book Overview

Columbia started life in 1850 when Dr. Thaddeus Hildreth and his brother set up the camp known as Hildreth's Diggins in the lovely Sierra foothills. More than 150 tumultuous years later, Columbia is an amazing example of a true gold rush community frozen in time. But this is no ghost town either--the downtown area, with its plank sidewalks, ornate hotels, and saloons, is preserved as a California State Historic Park. The town today is a living, breathing,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738530212
• ISBN13: 9780738530215
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (SC)
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Gold mountain

This book is about Columbia State Park, a 19th century gold rush town in a collection of good old history photos and stories. It was a well written history on this town from grandeur to decline. With town folks effort , they lobbied to preserve this western style buildings rebuilt after two devastating fires by turning into California state park. At the peak of gold rush, it attracted people from Europe and Asia with a good number of Chinese still remained in town even when the gold fever declined. They were rejected for gold mine claims and became owners of herb shop, dry food store, restaurant and laundry. They collected gold dust from abandoned mine and miners outfits in a small fortune. Columbia was known as gold mountain to the Chinese. The rustic western style buildings were ideal film location shots such as High Noon and Pale Ride (p.119 mistaken as Pale Horse) by Clint Eastwood, whose film showed Wells Fargo Express counter and the hydraulic canon to break dirt for gold. The town is famous for such environmental damage in the washed boulders around town. Thanks for the friends of Columbia State Park for honoring Chinese in town with a few pictures. Of memory was the building of the general store Chinese owned on page 50 and the tomb stone on p.96 and the Chinese merchant Lum Yin Yeung picture on p.114 and the State Park brochure. My recent visit was a Chinese-American history. Without gold backing on green back, only IN GOD WE TRUST, will Uncle Sam go gold rush again?