Between San Francisco and Yosemite: Panning for Gold

Thanks to No Child Left Behind legislation, no child of mine is learning much geography and history at school. The entire elementary school curriculum now skews toward reading and math. We decided that summer vacation was a good time to fill that curriculum gap.

Our summer vacation destination was preordained, since we were visiting family in Northern California. We knew we’d see the Golden Gate, eat in Chinatown, ride a cable car… but we wanted a special hands-on experience to share with our kids the essence of California’s past. So, we planned a side trip to historic Columbia, California, easily accessible from either San Francisco (140 miles) or Yosemite Valley (76 miles). This town is a relic of that history elementary school kids once learned about, the time when settlers loaded their belongings onto Conastogas and joined a wagon train to head west seeking their fortune. 

Exploring Columbia

Columbia is a gold mine of a town, pun intended. It's hard to tell from looking at it, but it was once the second largest town in the state. It is currently preserved as a State Historic Park, www.columbiacalifornia.com, and is reputedly the best preserved gold-mining town dating to the era of the California gold rush. Of course, not all of it is in the same condition as in gold rush days. Extensive rehabilitation efforts are obvious. But to the kids, that didn’t matter.