Columbia1970

Columbia1970
Columbia in 1970

The Anecdotal History of Columbia

The Anecdotal History of Columbia

As a class project, the students of Mrs. Øydegaard's Hands-on History elective at a local elementary school, gathered a plethora of tales representing each decade of 20th century Columbia State Historic Park history. Columbia, known since the early gold rush years, as the "Gem of the Southern Mines," has been a town since 1850 and a state historic park since 1945. Thousands of school children and other visitors come each year to experience a real gold rush town and, as you can learn from the Columbia Memories recorded here, they keep coming back for a myriad of good reasons.


A memory might not make it into the history book, lacking factual backing, but even so, it ought to have a place to be recorded and shared. Many a memory that seemed too fanciful to be true has been validated by some late-coming evidence. On the other hand, and probably more often, stories are related as fact, when they ought to be retold as “just stories,” lacking significant reality and truth (an “art form” the movie-making industry has perfected).


Here we share our Columbia memories, whether laden with fact or fiction, as well as give readers a chance to compare, validate, or provide the missing factual information making this blog an educational exchange as well as a place to tell our cherished tales of Columbia.


Saturday, March 5, 2011

Date: ?


By Roxanne Trainor
For Chase

My husband, Jim, and I go to go to Columbia with my sister and brother in law, Lynn and Joe Gray.  We take a couple of trips annually.  We bring our R.V.s up and camp at the beautiful 49er campground.  We love to walk into the adorable old Columbia town and visit all the old shops.  We always stop and make candles and the next stop is the blacksmith shop.  We have made a horseshoe with our last name in it for our front door.  We always get the best hot dog from the hot dog stand, then head over to the candy store for dessert.  We thoroughly enjoy ourselves by hitting all the remaining stores.  The old jail is a neat little building to visit, then we always have to go by the chicken coop and see the neat, happy hens and rooster.  After a wonderful day, we may hit the theater for a lovely evening.

A few times we have ridden the stage coach, and were even robbed by the robber.  Also, we can’t forget to stop and do a little gold mining.  We also enjoy going up for the Christmas parade and to see all the wonderful horses dressed up.  About two years ago it snowed during the parade, so my grandchildren and I sat by the pine, had hot apple cider and roasted chestnuts and kettle corn.

We love going to Columbia and what makes it even better is when we get to go with our grandkids and we get to see how much they enjoy it there.
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