COLUMBIA, CA
Columbia is now a California State Park preserving the town as a wonderful example of mining life along the Gold Route.
The town's old Gold Rush-era business district has been preserved, with shops, restaurants and two hotels.
Founded in 1850 by Mexican gold miners, it is in Tuolumne County, California, United States. Although only about 2,000 people now live in this region near Sonora, California, at its height it was California's second-largest city.
In 1854 the bulk of the town burned down and was re-built with brick and iron structures that survive to this day. Columbia's main street, part of the Columbia State Historic Park, is closed to automobile traffic but open to horses and carriages, as well as pedestrians.
Within weeks of the discovery of gold in the vicinity of Columbia, thousands of miners arrived and the population climbed to 5,000. By 1852, there were 8 hotels, 4 banks, 17 general stores, 2 firehouses, 2 bookstores, 1 newspaper, 3 churches, and over 40 drinking/gambling establishments
Between 1850 and the early 1900s, $150 million in gold was removed from the surrounding hills.
Columbia never became a ghost town. In 1945, California created Columbia State Historic Park from the remains of the historical buildings of the city.
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