School Programs at Columbia State Historic Park
The staff, volunteers and concessionaires at Columbia State Historic Park take great pride in the quality of our school presentations.  We offer a variety of opportunities for school children to have first-hand experiences to augment classroom learning about the California Gold Rush.  Over15,000 4th graders attend presentations at Columbia State Historic Park each year.

Parking and admission are free, and school groups are welcome to visit the park at any time for self-guided presentations.  The park’s concessionaires offer many programs directed at the school audience.  The Columbia Passport, a self-guided touring aid, is available at the museum, or may be ordered in advance of your trip, for $1 each. The park staff and volunteers offer three, different, formal programs, aimed at the 4th-grade audience, meeting California State Curriculum Standards for fourth grade social studies content.  Financial support for these programs is provided by Friends of Columbia State Historic Park.

Gold Trek
This is a unique program, offered just a few Fridays each spring.  After a series of in-class programs, led by the teacher and based on pre-visit activities in the accompanying teacher’s guide, the students arrive at the park prepared for their Gold Trek.  At the school, the students have baked hard-tack, created journals; classes will be designated into companies.  When they arrive at the park, the companies participate in an auction, where they have the opportunity to spend or save their money, purchase maps, carts, supplies and shovels, and start on their journey.  Along the route to the gold fields, they encounter charlatains, merchants, ferry crossings, and opportunities to make critical decisions that impact their ability to arrive at the diggin’s ready to work.

This program is meant to replicate the experience that many young men faced as they traveled from Stockton to the diggings in search of gold.  This program costs $75 per class, and takes approximately 4 hours. 
Reservations must be made by August 15, 2009, for the 2010 school year.  After this date if there is still room in the program applications will be accepted on a first come first serve basis. Attn: Ranger Mac 11255 Jackson St. Columbia, California 95223

Schoolhouse Living History Program and Bucket Brigade
This two-hour program consists of a 1-hour program led by park staff at the museum, consisting of a lesson on Columbia and the gold-rush, including the role of fire in the development of gold rush towns, the routes miners and merchants took to get to California, where they came from, and how they made their livings in gold-rush Columbia.

The second part of the museum program includes a hands-on bucket brigade, weather permitting.  Students then walk up the hill to the 1861 brick Columbia Schoolhouse, where a costumed schoolteacher presents an hour-long school program, using the methods and tools of the 1861 classroom.

Cost for this program is $40.  Reservations may be made be mailing in the completed form. You may mail in the application at any time.  We hold applications until August 15th, then begin processing, based on lottery order.  After August 15th, applications are processed as they are received.  These programs sell out early.

Columbia Diggin’s Education Days-June 3-6, 2010
In early June of each year, docents and staff recreate an early tent town to demonstrate the daily life of Gold Rush mining camps.   Special educational programs for 4th graders are offered on the Thursday and Friday of Columbia Diggins Tent Town.  Students get a chance to tour the camp and interact with characters from 1852. 

This program adheres to the state’s curriculum standards, and provides an unbeatable opportunity for students to experience first-hand what they’ve learned in the classroom.  This program is very popular, and reservations are required.  A lottery for available slots is held from reservation forms received by August 15th.  Any slots left after that date will be scheduled first-come, first-served.

To preserve the learning environment, classes without reservations are not admitted on Thursday or Friday of the event.  The cost is $30, plus $3 each child for the purchase of “Columbia Eagles” which are redeemed for goods, food or services in the camp, giving students an opportunity to interact in the mercantile economy of the camp.

Additional opportunities offered by State Park Concessionaires throughout the year

Activities:
Stagecoach Rides - Quartz Mountain Stage Line 209-588-0808
Candle Dipping - Columbia Candle & Soap Works 209-536-9047
Gold Panning & Tours - Matlock Gulch Mining Company 209-532-9693
Candy Tours - Nelson’s Candy Kitchen 209-532-7886
Food and Drink:
Student lunches - Jack Douglass Saloon 209-533-4176
School program on early writing - Columbia Booksellers & Stationers 209-533-1852
Student Lunches, Ice Cream - Coffee and Sweets Saloon 209-532-1850
Entertainment:
Sierra Repertory Theatre - 209-532-3120