Columbia State Park

When we went to Columbia, we dressed like people in the 1850s.

Columbia State Park is an old gold town like in the 1850s. We each got a little book about Columbia and had to go through the town and find the answers to the questions in each little place. We learned a lot about what a town was like back in the gold mining days.

We got to go to school like it would be in the 1860s. We learned how boys and girls sat on opposite sides of the school house, how the students had to do chores, and how they had to stand when they answered the teacher's questions. They did a lot of reading outloud.




We also learned about the early fire department and saw a big cistern under the street. We saw an old, old fire engine that the people actually had to pump by hand to get the water up from the cistern and into the hose. We also had to work together on a bucket brigade to haul water. It was fun but hard work. Some people got really wet!


We had lunch there and then got to play around by the chickens and on some of the old wagons.

The part we really liked was mining for gold. This old guy showed us how to use a gold pan to find gold in the bottom of the dirt.

I found a lot of pretty rocks but not much gold.

This was one of my favorite field trips.