Columbia's Provisions, Miner's Supplies & Dry Goods Store

 Today I'm featuring one of the stores found in Columbia, the Provisions, Miner's Supplies and Dry Goods store.

In the Sierra-Nevada foothills on the other side of the mountains from Lundy and Bridgeport, miners flocked to Columbia, known as the queen of the southern mines, founded on March 27, 1850 when Dr. Thaddeus Hildreth, his brother George and a handful of other prospectors made camp nearby and discovered gold. Originally known as Hildreth's Diggings, it's name was later changed to Columbia. Today it is a California historical state park in which every effort has been made to preserve the buildings, furnishings and artifacts of the times.

As was typical back then, the store was not very large. The storefront was maybe twelve feet wide, but deep. The inside was packed with all the available supplies, dry goods and provisions needed by the miners and their families. 

Like most towns in the gold mining regions, major fires swept through Columbia, one in 1854 and a second in 1857, which prompted the construction of brick buildings with tall, narrow iron shutters that could be closed to prevent the spread of fire. After 1860, when the placer gold was gone, the town began to decline. In the 1870s and ’80s many of the vacated buildings were torn down and their sites mined using hydraulic mining technology. Columbia’s population dropped from a peak of perhaps six thousand to about five hundred.

However, this little building sits a block away from several of the preserved brick structures on Main Street. It is a reproduction intended to represent a typical mercantile of the early placer mining era. Although not one hundred percent authentic, seeing the collection can help modern visitors visualize what was available to the miners, businessmen and families that lived back then.

For starters, I'm not going to vouch that the period wallpaper behind the merchandise shelves is representative of the typical mercantile of the day. I suspect that was a nice feminine touch added to make the display more appealing to tourists. However, the dry goods on the shelves may be typical of the times. I can vouch that if the fabric selection displayed was usually found in the frontier dry goods stores of the late 1800s, it is no match for the fabric stores where we shop today.

I did find the selection of tools, food tins, dishes, medicines and other goods interesting. I especially enjoyed seeing the wooden boxes, which along with wooden barrels, were often used to ship items during that time before the development of cardboard.

 
No store in the mining region would have been complete without its assay equipment since many of the customers paid, not with coin which was often scare, or with paper money which did not become widely used until after the Civil War, but with gold and silver. 

 










Also typical of the time, the owners of the store lived on the premises either above or behind the public area.

Notice the dressing table with the pitcher and bowl for personal care. Also, the bed has a tick mattress over a foundation of ropes and leather straps. In that era, in the days before the use of chest of drawers became prevalent, many people were fortunate if they had a chest in which they could store their clothes and belongings.

The stove in the living area is small, but adequate to heat the approximately 10 foot by 12 foot room.

Then there was the tin hip bath. In spite of the well over six foot tall hunky heroes often described in today's historical western romance novels, due to diet and other factors, most North Americans and Europeans a century and a half ago tended to be shorter and thinner than most of their descendants living today. Still, considering this hip bath is about the size of a medium to large laundry basket, I don't think back then many people sank into the hot water in one of these for a long, relaxing soak. Most of us today would probably consider it about the right size for a foot bath, but not much else.

 Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family

Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press in October 2014 and her novelette, A Christmas Promise, was published by Prairie Rose Publications in November 2014. The first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, are now available.

The author is a member of Women Writing the West, American Night Writers Association, and Modesto Writers Meet Up. She currently lives with her husband in California near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” She enjoys any kind of history including family history. When she is not piecing together novel plots, she pieces together quilt blocks.

Please visit the Zina Abbott’s Amazon Author Page by clicking HERE.

The Tibbits House in Columbia

Outside of Tibbits House corner of Main Street & Fulton Street, Columbia, CA

I have been to Columbia State Park in California many times in the past decades, but the first time I recall the Tibbet’s House being open to the public was during my trip last month. This house on the corner of Main Street and Fulton Street in Columbia is a neat, one story frame structure with an interesting history that reflects the growth of this gold rush city.

Mrs. Tibbits formal parlor so she could entertain her friends

 This house was named after the Lyman C. Tibbet (aka Tibbitt) family who lived in Columbia, California from 1887 to 1932. 

The back portion was formed from a cabin originally built in the 1850s on land north of Columbia in Gold Springs. It was originally owned by Lyman’s father, John P. Tibbets who died in 1866. In 1887 Lyman had the cabin moved to a vacant lot in Columbia.  Previously, the lot had been used for a general merchandise store, a meat market and possibly a saloon.

Mrs. Tibbet was dissatisfied living in the cabin because she did not have a formal parlor in which to entertain her friends. Her husband remedied that by buying a portion of another building in town and attaching it to the front of the original cabin.

That parlor is now restored to the 1870s era. Much of the decor is original and the rest is authentic to the time period.

Docent by door leading to modernized back cabin

The back part, which is the original cabin, has been modernized and is currently being lived in by a park employee.

From 1880 to 1911, Dr. Tibbetts ran a pharmacy across the street from the home in the current bank building. He later ran the pharmacy out of the parlor in his home. He also served as the town’s postmaster for several years.

Map of Columbia with arrow pointing to location of Tibbits House

Although Columbia was on the other side of the Sierria Nevada Mountains by way of the Sonora Pass from Lundy in Mono County, the time period in which the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series takes place is about the same time that "Doc" Tibbits worked as a pharmacist in Columbia.

Now Available

There is a reference in both of my novellas, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart (scheduled for release in April), of Doctor Guirado who also worked as a physician and ran a pharmacy in the gold mining town of Lundy, California. Big Meadows Valentine starts in the first week of January, 1884 and concludes on Valentine's Day.

Although no known photos exist of Dr. Guirado's home or business, we do know that his pharmacy was located on Main Street between First Street and Second Street, across the street and a half block down from the Arcade Saloon in which my character Beth Dodd works as a cook for the chop shop (steak house) in the back.

Scheduled for release April, 2015

I know of no known record that tells us what Dr. Guirado was doing on April 5th, 1884, a day in Lundy dubbed by the locals as "Resurrection Day." A Resurrected Heart is about the weekend surrounding this event. However, I'm sure with all the celebrating that took place in addition to the usual illnesses, in real life the good doctor was kept busy.

On Friday in A Resurrected Heart, Dr. Guirado is called on to patch up a miner injured in a confrontation. On Saturday, Beth is called on to assist with a birth because Dr. Guirado is busy escorting two very ill Lundyites to the county hospital in Bridgeport. It was an action-packed weekend for all filled by "A march, a birth, a burial -- and a resurrection of her heart."

     Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press in October 2014 and her novelette, AChristmas Promise, was published by Prairie Rose Publications in November 2014. Big Meadows Valentine, the first novella in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, is now available for Kindle HERE and for B&N Nook HERE and A Resurrected Heart is scheduled for release in April 2015.

Please visit the Zina Abbott’s Amazon Author Page by clicking HERE.