Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Eureka!


Monday, I took all of the girls on a field trip to Columbia Historic State Park. It's an old gold rush town about an hour and a half from us. We aren't studying CA history this year but we needed to get out and do something fun.

The old Main Street makes you feel like you are walking around back in the 1800's. They have the original Wells Fargo Bank along with the shipping station. The character of the shops have been maintained well. Some of the sidewalks were still wooden. The shop owners all wore costumes specific to that era.



They had a dress up room for children 
This was an old bowling lane with 3 small heavy  balls and wooden pins. 



Old 2 story school house. There was one room on each story

 
The school before it was restored


infamous dunce cap


The headstones in the cemetery were interesting. The old ones from the 1800's didn't have birthdates, but years aged instead. This one said this person was murdered. The headstones for small children didn't bear the child's name only son or daughter of the parents names. 





We are planning on going back again to do some gold panning. It was a fun trip and a nice day.

1 comment:

Mindy said...

So much of your fun trip has to do with the history you are studying, though! Thomas Jefferson (who sent Lewis and Clark on their voyage that ultimately ended in the Pacific) felt it would take 1000 years for people (I mean this with no offense to the ACTUAL make-up of the west coast, then and now, etc...) to fully populate to the Pacific Ocean. Of course, gold and the promise of instant riches means a lot--and the fact that there are these 'ghost towns' still today is a nod at how well the dream of instant riches works out for most.

God bless you, your husband, and your little women,

Mindy

P.S. I find headstones fascinating, they say a great deal in not saying much. I belong to a website that helps those in different geographic locations find the burial sites of their loved ones. (For example, an ex-pat from France can ask someone in France for assurance their relatives graves are being attended to properly.) It sounds macabre, but it gives people comfort, too. www.findagrave.com

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