MUST RIDE: A stagecoach rounds a corner onto Main Street full of riders in Columbia State Historic Park.
By Tony Hicks
Kids love ghost stories. They love ghost tours — on which they discover the hotel room next door is supposedly haunted — even more.
Then they go to bed — and the idea becomes a lot less lovable in the dark.
But the resulting sleeplessness just shows you how good the ghost tours are at Columbia State Historic Park in Columbia, east of San Francisco, USA.
That’s not the only surprise awaiting first-time visitors to the town that seemingly stopped aging in the 19th century. Folks dress in period clothes. Many buildings have been rooted in place for more than a century. The only vehicle allowed downtown is the stagecoach — and a stagecoach ride is a must. Hotel rooms are as close as possible to what they were in the 1800s, without asking guests to forgo electricity and indoor plumbing.
And there’s gold in that town.
Columbia — which sits in the Sierra foothills off Highway 49 near Sonora and Jamestown — was the site of a major gold strike in 1849 when a storm halted passing prospectors. They discovered gold in a nearby stream, and fortune seekers and merchants began pouring into the area in a matter of days. Within just a few years, the once uninhabited spot was one of the largest cities in California — the second or fourth, depending on whom one asks.
That rich stream is long gone, but they still pan for gold in Columbia. Janis Groeger, who grew up in Campbell, owns the town’s gold-panning business. Sediment is brought from a nearby claim (they won’t say where, in case you turn out to be a lowdown, dirty bandit), and visitors spend $5 to $12 to sift through the sand in long, water-filled troughs.
Kids love it, because everyone is guaranteed to strike gold — even if it’s just a bit of dust. “No one goes home empty-handed,” says Groeger, who moved to the area in 1981.
Lessons come from real prospectors, including Ken Valenta, the 2010 US Gold Panning champ, who looks and sounds the part. My kids would still be there if we hadn’t had a date with some ghosts.
After a colourful stop at the candle-dipping place, we start the ghost tour at the 19th-century City Hotel, where we happen to be staying. Volunteer Carol Biederman has guided the tour for 18 years and possesses just the right amount of dry drama to spin her tales. Builder George Morgan committed suicide at the City Hotel, and his ghostly form may still roam the premises. There have been numerous sightings of a grief-stricken woman in period clothes, pining for her lost baby — which would explain the crying heard late at night and reports of an unoccupied rocking chair moving back and forth.
The tour goes up an adjacent street, to a house where a landlord killed his tenant during a dispute in 1875, doing the dastardly deed right in front of a handyman — reportedly, all three have been spotted as apparitions. Then it’s off to Columbia’s spook central — the Fallon Hotel, which was built in 1859 by Owen Fallon. The ghost of his grown son, James, has been spotted at the hotel and the theatre next door. There also seems to be something at the hotel that likes to move furniture and steal the toys of young guests. Actress Betsy Palmer, in town doing a stage production, reportedly once heard something moving furniture in an uninhabited room.
After the tour, I asked Biederman if she ever gets creeped out by the stories. “I do,” she said, dropping her voice so the others can’t hear. “But I don’t share those ones.”
History is everywhere in Columbia. On a town tour, we discover the cottage across the street from our hotel is the house Gary Cooper was filmed exiting in High Noon. A block down is a barn used in the film Young Guns. We hear about the politics and events that shaped Columbia, as well as the fires and other disasters that posed challenges.
Columbia’s proximity to Sonora and Jamestown is great for visitors. If you’re there for more than a couple of days, trek four miles into surprisingly lively Sonora, where the Diamondback Grill is worth the wait. Jamestown is home to Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, where 45-minute train rides take you through the countryside to film locations for everything from Unforgiven to Pale Rider, Back to the Future Part III, High Noon, Petticoat Junction (they still have the water tower), Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie. The free roundhouse tour is fascinating with its up-close looks at train engines, machine shops and tools — but it’s a bit long for young children, especially if it’s hot outside.
There are a surprising number of caves and caverns in the region, too — we’d hoped to tour Moaning Caverns, on the road between Columbia and the Stanislaus River (my kids were pining to do the ziplines), but ran out of time. At a mere two and a half hours from the Bay Area, Columbia can easily become a regular destination for the family. Next time, we’ll just have to add an extra day for those ziplines. —Contra Costa Times/MCT
IF YOU GO
Columbia State Historic Park, 11255 Jackson St., Columbia, 209-588-9128, www.parks.ca.gov. Most stores and attractions are open daily from 10am to 5pm. The park has two hotels, City Hotel and Fallon Hotel; prices range from $66 to $170, depending on number of guests, room type and day of week (camping and cottages are also available).
The ghost tour and stagecoach rides cost $10 (reservations are recommended for the ghost tour, as it gets booked up months in advance). Panning for gold costs $5-$12. Town tours are free.
Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, 18115 Fifth Ave., Jamestown. Open daily (9:30am to 4:30pm April-October; 10am to 3pm November-March). Trains run hourly from 11am to 3pm on weekends; $15 for adults, $8 for children ages six to 17. Roundhouse tours are free. 209-984-3953, www.railtown1897.org.
Parents need to know: Bring books for down time, as the hotels have no televisions or wi-fi (cellphones work fine). Streets are dusty, and the area gets warm in the summer and cold in the winter. Expect kids to get wet while panning for gold. If you need snacks or any other groceries, plan ahead: The Columbia stores close at 5pm (but Sonora is just four miles away).
Nearby eats: There are a few restaurants in Columbia, most of which are more than adequate. But the Columbia House is not one of them. Waits are long, the restaurant is understaffed, and the food is below average.