Stop 7: Columbia, CA

We're spending 2 nights in Columbia, right on the edge of Columbia State Historical Park.

We had another interesting travel day getting here. It was a 165 mile trip, 90 of which were on Highway 49. I intentionally forced us onto 49 because it's scenic (the GPS was resistant). I should have listened to the GPS.

In my experience with North/South roads in the Sierras, they were relatively straight and followed the contour lines (i.e., the were fairly level). 49, at least the 30 or so miles South of Auburn, were a major exception to this rule. I had looked long and hard to see if any of my sources had warnings about this road - none did. I knew that the road had to cross the North, Middle and South Forks of the American River. I didn't count on the switchback 8-9% grades down into and up out of each of the river canyons. It wasn't fun.

We relaxed in our campsite the first afternoon and saved the site seeing for day 2. Our first site seeing stop was Columbia State Historical Park. Most of the businesses were just starting to open up when we arrived.

Pumper in the Columbia Fire Station. Got a kick out of their pronouncing its name as "pap" (rhymes with rap) "Pete". With a little investigation I learned that this pumper was on its way to Pape'ete, Tahiti when the order was canceled. Columbia was able to pick it up cheap.

Kristen on the empty streets of Historic Columbia (which hadn't opened for the day just yet.

In the livery stable.

An old hearse in the livery stable.

A place to pan for gold in Historic Columbia. The signs described the terrain around town as having been scraped. They hydraulic mined all of the soil away and then picked away at the remaining rocks to find anything of value. Many of the buildings were burned down so that someone could mine their sites.

Door on the Mine Supply Store.

Our next stop was just a couple of miles away in Sonora. Sonora has a very cute old main street (I think that it's called Washington) and we grabbed some lunch while we were there.

As we were leaving Columbia on our way to Sonora, we passed a sign that directed us off to the right to the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park so, after lunch, we went back to Columbia and started following the signs. After taking us 6-8 miles out of the way, that route led us right passed our parking place and restaurant in Sonora and on down the hill to Jamestown. Crazy route.

At any rate, we really enjoyed the park.

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Inside the roundhouse at Railtown Park.

Inside thre roundhouse at Railtown Park.

Not the real Petticoat Junction water tank though it was filmed locally and featured Old #3.

Smokestack that was on Old #3 and popped its rivets and exploded when Old #3 reached
88 MPH in Back to the Future 3.

This one was called a Hettch Hetchy Car.

Star of film and screen, Old #3. In addition to Petticoat Junction and Back to the Future 3, this engine has been in hundreds of Westerns: High Noon, Clint Eastwood movies (including The Unforgiven and High Plains Drifter), Little House on the Prairie, somw W.C. Fields movies, etc.

Tomorrow, we're off to Mariposa for 3 nights so we can visit Yosemite. The waterfalls should be running strong.

-JC-