California Gold Rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
Nevada County, California
Nevada County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 102,241. The county seat is Nevada City, Califor ...
. Originally known as Columbia, Columbia Hill, or The Hill because of its proximity to Columbia Hill, it started as a gold miners' camp around 1851. When a
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
was established on May 29, 1860, the word "North" was added in order to differentiate the settlement from
Columbia, California
Columbia is a census-designated place (CDP) located in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Tuolumne County, California, Tuolumne County, California, United States. It was founded as a boomtown in 1850 when gold was found during the California Gold R ...
, another gold rush town in
Tuolumne County, California
Tuolumne County (), officially the County of Tuolumne, is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 55,620. The county seat and only incorpora ...
.
In 1878, when miners discovered that the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58 But with the eventual curtailment of
hydraulic mining
Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...
, miners moved away. The post office closed in 1931.
Eventually, North Columbia became an unincorporated part of
Nevada City, California
Nevada City is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, California, Sacramento, southwest of Reno, Nevada, Reno and northeast of San Francisco. The population was 3,152 as of the 2020 United States ...
.
Historic landmarks
The Columbia Hill Schoolhouse still stands, though it has been converted into a cultural center, hosting events such as the North Columbia Folk Festival and the Sierra Storytelling Festival. It was registered as a historical landmark in 1971.Comstock and Zimmerman, Explorimg Nevada County (2022 electronic edition) No. 129Foote's Crossing Road, a
National Historic Place
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...