Columbia Historic State Park is really the town of Columbia, nestled in the fothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is right in the heart of Gold Mining Country.
It started around 1850 and the entire town has been preserved as it was in about 1870. It looks just like what it is, a mining/cowboy/western movie town, except it is for real. we strolled down Main Street and looked in at the shop windows of the hardware store, saloons, the blacksmith, leather shop and others. We looked in at the museum and found out about the gold - they had on display real gold nuggets that were panned out of the area, a plaster cast of the biggest ever gold nugget found there - 132 oz! Lots of despcriptions about the role that water played in the development of the town.
Before a constant supply of water was brought to the town via wooden shutes and dikes the town closed down in the summer, now panning could go on, not enough water to drik even. Once water arived then the town grew, at a price. Average earnings from gold panning were $8 per day, cost of water was $6 per day! There were battles over this and so the first water wars in California were fought 160 years ago.
We saw the little picket fence house that featured in High Noon. The whole film was due to be shot ther, but it rained and was too green to be a New Mexico town, so it was shot in the studio back lot.
We stopped for a coffee/tea in a saloon, watching the rain. Then packed up and continued up US49. The road became narrower and more twisty and hilly, se we were both grateful and grumpy when we finally made it to the campground. We dined on Cornbeef Hash and Beans.
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