Survived Diggins?

Now that it has been a month since Diggins, we are going to have a venue head meeting this Saturday, July 10th at 11 AM. This meeting is following the regularly scheduled Docent meeting. Please bring your ideas of what worked and what didn't for your venue.

New Diggins Tee-shirts

Our new Diggins tee-shirts have arrived. This year's picture was taken in front of the bakery. They are being sold for $12 and you may pick them up at the museum. Sizes range from Adult Small - Adult XXXL.

There are still a few of last year's Diggins tee-shirts. They are now on sale for $10. Sizes are limited.

Meeting reminder

Wednesday, June 2nd at 6:00 PM Please meet at the Diggins theater for last minute information, school group instructions, and anything else that may come up between now and then.

Only 8 days until Diggins....

Scenario brainstorming

Some of you have offered to begin these discussions. If you have not offered to start a conversation, feel free to start one, these are some of your ideas from last week's brainstorming session.

Mining issues disputes
Water company bills to laundry
Ordering food for the hotel
Someone having a baby (possibly with complications... we have a midwife)
Mail Call
People arriving by stage (theater troupe or other "loose" women)
Columbia Miner's Law discussion at the Coffee Saloon (Tim M. and John H.)
Bed bugs at the American Hotel or Boarding House (Louise and miners)
Rumor of weevils in the flour
Fire in nearby town so must practice bucket brigade

11 days left...

Canvas went up this weekend (Thank you to Larry, Bernie, Rick & Carolyn Walters, Steve Lyons, Jim Napier, Bill Gylling, John Glamuzina, John Hand, Margaret Young, and Tim Martell)

Diggins Registration at Portals (all participants must check in): Wednesday 8-10 AM, 3-5 PM; Friday 5-7 PM; Saturday 8-10 AM. Come get your eagles, Saturday night dinner ticket, parking permit and any other paperwork

We are still in need of:
Help unloading food with Jerry on Tuesday, 8:30-11:30. Bring a hand truck if you have one
The Coffee Saloon is looking for help all day Thursday
Dishwashers at the American Hotel

The Green Room will be accepting baked items as donations. Jerry and his crew will serve baked items as dessert throughout Diggins. Please drop off your baked items anytime starting Wednesday. Please label your donations with food allergies items.

Are you still looking for a place to help out during the event?

We are still in need of:
School tour guides on Thursday and Friday
Tamale salesperson on Saturday and Sunday
Dishwasher at the American Hotel on any day
Laundress on any day or any shift

If you are interested, call the park office at 209-588-9128.

Meeting reminder

There is a meeting this Saturday, May 15th at 10 AM. Please meet at the Eagle Cotage. We will be discussing any last minute details. Only 22 days until Diggins!

In need of housing?

The Marble Quarry RV Resort about 1/2 mile away from Columbia is offering a special for docents and volunteers again this year. When you call to make your reservation, tell them that you are a volunteer for Columbia's Diggins event and you will receive a 10% discount. There are campsites for tents only, RV camping, and small cabins available. Please contact 209-532-9539 or toll free 866-MQRVING (677-8464). Also, you may check out their website at www.marblequarry.com
You may want to make your reservations soon as it will be getting into the busy season.

Updated info...

We still need school tour leaders. Even if you can only do one tour, it would be greatly appreciated.

This year we will be selling tamales out of the Californio venue. We need a couple of people to help sell the tamales.

If you have a scenario idea (women's rights, temperance, people running for office) get a group together to work out your idea. Bring your scenario ideas to the next meeting and we can work out times for each scenario so we don't overlap them.

Our next Diggins meeting will be on Saturday, May 15th at 10 AM at the Eagle Cotage.

Donation Letter

Look to the left of this post and you will see a link that says, "Diggins forms, rules, and donation letter" Please click on that link and print a copy of our donation letter. Please then take this to local stores that you think may want to donate something to Diggins. Also, if you have friends that may want to give a donation, give them this letter. Then, please let Mac know if you collected any donations and she will make sure the donors get the proper recognition.
On that link, you will also find a copy of one of our posters. You may want to print that out and show to the prospective donors.
We will take monetary or food donations. You know the type of things we sell at Diggins or eat in our Green Room. Anything will help!
Thank you for your participation and support!

Meeting minutes

For those of you who were unable to make it to last night's meeting, here are some items that were discussed....

The mission of Columbia State Historic Park's Diggins program is to provide visitors and school children with an enjoyable, educational, and historical interpretation of a California Gold Rush tent town circa 1852.

--All forms are due by April 15th. The forms have been updated and are now on the blog. Check out the link to the left of this post.

--If you are a venue head and you have not met with Danielle, please make an appointment with her ASAP. All supplies needs for your venue must be submitted by March 1st.

--Construction update: the next work crew dates are February 27th - 28th;
March 13th - 14th; March 28th. It is now required by the State that if you are a docent/volunteer and you work with hand tools, you must be signed off on all the tools that you may use. Tool training will be held February 28th.

--The Coffee Saloon and Reading Room will have a small space in their venue for someone to set up a small business. If you are interested, please contact John and Mel Horton.

--The Brown's Store is looking for a wholesaler to interact with them.

--After long discussion, we feel that we should raise the cost of Diggins. It has not been raised in several years. We are now proposing to raise the adult price to $4.

--We began brainstorming new scenario ideas to add to Diggins this year. These are some of your ideas: conflict on the street- closure of a building; political discussion in the Coffee Saloon spilling out into the street; foreign miner's tax; water company protest; speeches in the street (people running for office); characters walking around continuously trying to sell items; using the public as messengers; women's rights; auctions/raffle for miner's goods

--In the near future, we will post a copy of a donation letter for you to print out and take with you to any businesses that you think might donate to our event. Any amount will be helpful. More details to follow.

--Our next meeting will be on Saturday, March 13th at 11:00 AM

Meeting date changed

After looking at the calendar again, we have noticed that the original date for the next meeting was on Ash Wednesday and some of you may have not been able to make it so we have changed the date.
The new meeting date is Thursday, February 18th at 6 PM
See you all there!

Venue head meeting notes

For those of you who were not able to attend this morning's meeting, here are a few notes:
--we need to sell more items and do more street peddling:
dried fruits and nuts maybe out of wagons
hard tack from the Coffee Saloon
soap
selling more high end items and selling drafts for these items or maybe selling these items out of Portals

--we might have some empty buildings this year so we will be looking at moving some of the smaller venues around

--if one of your friends is not linked up to this blog, please help us forward information to them. Also, help us keep in contact with our friends from visiting parks (Old Town Sac, Old Town San Diego, Marshall Gold, Sutter's Fort, etc.)

--If you are a venue head and have not already set up a meeting, please set up a meeting date with Danielle between now and early February to discuss your venue budget, what you are going to sell, and any needs.

--Any new Green Room suggestions? Jerry is always looking for ideas to fill our bellies.

--Next Diggins meeting is Wednesday, February 17th at 6 PM

--Next Construction Crew meeting is Saturday, February 13th (after the docent meeting)

Venue Head meeting

It is the start of the year which means our planning needs to begin if you haven't done so already. Our first venue head meeting will be on Saturday, January 9th right after the docent meeting (approximately 11:30 AM). See you all there!