Columbia is probably the best preserved of the early gold rush towns in California's Mother Lode country.

Rich placer deposits were discovered by a party of miners on March 27, 1850. More than a thousand prospectors were immediately attracted to the scene, but a shortage of water - vital to the working of the placers - slowed the immediate development of the town.

A water company was formed in 1851, and a vast network of reservoirs, ditches and flumes was constructed. A second water company built a million dollar aqueduct to convey water for sixty miles from the South Fork of the Stanislaus River through the mountains to Columbia.

In 1855, a telegraph line form Stockton to Columbia was completed. In 1856, hydraulic mining began on a large scale. In 1858, gas distributed through wooden pipes was briefly illuminated the town.

During the 1850s, the population ranged between two and five thousand.

The Columbia Basin district yielded an estimated $87,000,000 in gold. [Webmaster note: almost $2.5 billion in 2012 dollars.]

By 1861, the boom was over, and by 1867, most of the population had left for Nevada and other fields. In the 1870s and 1880s, many vacant buildings were demolished, but Columbia never became a ghost town. Its population remained at about five hundred souls during the 20th century.

In 1945, the district became Columbia State Historic Park.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination dated 8 April 1964.