Gold in Them Thar Hills

With inflation on the horizon, it seemed like a good time to go panning for gold. So while I was in Modesto with my brother, Ron, and Carole was staying with her granddaughter, Melissa, near Sacramento, Ron and I decided to go to Columbia, California, where gold was first discovered in 1850 and try our hand at panning for gold. Ron, and his son, Tim, and I made the trip to what is now Columbia State Historic Park in the mountains of Northern California.



This is a great place to look at history. In 1850, a couple of men discovered gold here and the word got out. In a short period of time, there were 7,000 men here looking for gold. Men came from all over the world seeking their fortunes.

They began panning for gold, then tunneling, and finally using hydraulic pressure to wash away the soil to get at the gold. The ground level here is now about 20-30 feet lower than it had been as that much soil was washed away looking for gold and exposing huge rock formations which were previously underground.

Today this town is a State Park . . . a real piece of history which, unfortunately, is on the verge of being closed because of California's state financial situation. What a shame!

The picture below on the left is a sluice where visitors can pan for gold, but it wasn't in operation the day we were here, so we were not able to pan for gold. You can see in the background exposed rock formations which were underground before hydraulic mining washed away the soil. In the right picture below is some of the pump equipment and pipes which had been used in the hydraulic mining operations.

















Much of the town is still intact with many stores open including several saloons. We stopped for lunch and a cold beer in the Douglas Saloon where we were told to check our shootin' irons at the door . . . just like in the old days. The "saloon" in the picture on the right below is really a candy store where they were busy making candy. I picked up some chocolate candies for Carole.

















Several buildings in the old town were set up as museums, one of which contained old historic vehicles. Below on the left are pictured a couple of horse drawn buggies. On the right below is a horse drawn hearse. Notice that the part where they coffin would have been carried is glass enclosed so people could see inside.

















In the left photo below, cases and barrels of goods are stored in the back room of an old store. On the right below is an old bowling alley which the miners used when they came to town for relaxation and recreation. The alley is very crude, much smaller that current day bowling alleys. The balls were only about 5-6 inches in diameter, and without finger holes.

















In the left photo below is the scale in the Wells Fargo office where gold was weighed. Several million ounces of gold were weighed on this scale. This scale is so sensitive it can weigh a signature in pencil on a piece of paper. On the right below are pictured some of the bottles of drugs and medicines in the town's drug store or apothecary.


















There are lots of old historic buildings and artifacts in this old town. We didn't get to pan for gold, but we did have the opportunity to soak up a lot of history.

It's just a dirty shame that the State of California is in such bad financial shape that they will soon be closing this State Park and, perhaps, losing all of this history so that future generations will miss out on all of this.

But . . . at one time there sure was "Gold in Them Thar Hills"!