Brushing up on our history...

Hope you are all excited as we are about Diggins! Need to brush up on your Columbia history? Here’s a brief write-up courtesy of Judith Peebles:

1849, the area of Columbia was known as Santa Iago, a Mexican settlement with some buildings, possibly of adobe.
March 27, 1850 - gold is discovered by the Hildreth brothers, Walker, and Carson.
April 1850 - a mining district was formed, but only allowed with American born citizens.
May of 1850 - Columbia is the settled name, after being called Hildreth's Diggins and American Camp.
Summer of 1850 the area is almost deserted because of lack of water, but by the Fall, the population picks up when the rains return.
June of 1851 - the Tuolumne County Water Company is formed to insure a steady supply of water to the county and the various towns, camps and strikes.
November of 1851 - the streets of Columbia are laid out. Businesses promote steady growth, with the town size consisting of over 500 buildings.
Fall 1851-Spring 1852 The nearby town of Sonora has a terrible fire, the local populace of Columbia fears the same tragedy, but there is no serious danger until 1854. Citizens worry about foreign miners coming to the area and staking claims, a foreign miners tax is levied. Also, the Sole Trader Act is made into California law stating that a woman may own her own property and business, keeping any income earned herself.
In July of 1852, and the talk of our town is the increasing numbers of families so there is a need for churches and schools. St. Andrews church is built at this time. Two other churches are built, and a private school is started. With votes of 1,500 men, the town is well on it's way to incorporation.Also, the first water was brought into town by flume from Five Mile Creek, which gave the town a year-round stability. By August, the flume was extended to South Fork which would provide even more water.
Columbia has fires that devastate the town, but not until July 1854, August 1857, and July 1861. By April 1864 most the gold is finished, consequently many of the buildings are sold and moved to Sonora. Shortly after this, another fire in 1865 burns down many buildings in the financial area around the City Hotel.

Look for more history posts in the next couple of days! Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Venue head reminder

If you have not sent in a question for your venue to Ben, please do so as soon as possible. We are trying to create a "passport" for Diggins much like we have for the main part of town. Ben's email is: gooogle1996@yahoo.com

Saturday/Sunday schedule of events

8:30 Breakfast
9:00 Flagpole meeting
10:00 Diggins opens
11:00 Town tour meet at Portals
12:00 Stage arrives with performers and mail drop --as many people as possible please come to the middle of town and make a big to do about mail finally arriving. Also, miners, this would be a great time to fuss over the theater ladies...
12:15 Boxing match scenario
1:00 Gambling Gone Bad scenario
1:30 Theater performance
2:10 Ladies scenario
2:15 Town tour meet at Portals
3:00 Theater performance
3:30 Bucket Brigade
4:00 Portals closes
5:00 Diggins closes

Reminder: Check in is also on Saturday morning from 8 - 10 and Survival Dinner is on Saturday evening at 6.

Meeting notes from Saturday....

Everyone must check in with Louise Kirk and Barbara Davis on Wednesday 9 - 11 AM or 4 - 6 PM; Friday 4 - 6 PM; Saturday 8 - 10 AM. At this time, you will get your survival dinner ticket and your eagles. We are asking for a $10 donation to help go towards all the food costs this year. If you eat every meal that we offer, that amounts to $1 a meal, can't get any better than that!

There will be a sign in and sign out clipboard at Portals. Please remember to do this everyday that you are at Diggins beginning on Wednesday. This helps us track volunteer hours and helps us know who is around for safety reasons.

Survival dinner is on Saturday at 6 PM in the picnic area across from Diggins near the parking lot (where we had it last year). If you have not sent in your preference of a main dish - carnitas or turkey verde - please send an email to Mac at jmacnaughton@parks.ca.gov

If you like to bake, Jerry Tannhauser will love to have baked goods donated to the Green Room. Please bring your baked goods any morning between 8:30 - 9:30 throughout the week of Diggins. Please bake things in a disposable pan, drop it off in the kitchen of the Eagle, and label your food item with allergy information (nuts). We have some cake mixes and cookie mixes here at the Eagle if you would like to use those.

The Green Room will be open for lunch between 11 - 1:30 Thursday - Sunday. Taco bar and sandwiches with salads will be the menu throughout the weekend. Cold drinks will always be available in the afternoon. Please everyone take your breaks, have something cold to drink, and get out of the heat... say hi to the Green Room Crew!

We will be selling bags of ice for out of town people. If you would like to buy a bag of ice, we are asking for a $4/bag donation. See Thonni during the event for purchases.

Venue heads, we have asked that you come up with a question for your venue that we can put on a one page "passport". This will give the visitors a way to meet different venues and have good conversation starters. Please send your questions to Ben at gooogle1996@yahoo.com

Only 15 days left...

Survival Dinner

This year the Jack Douglass Saloon will be providing dinner for us on Saturday night. The menu will include turkey verde or carnitas. Mike Keene has asked that we get a head count of who wants what meal. Please send a response to Mac whether you prefer turkey or carnitas.

Diggins Venue head meeting

Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 5:30 PM at the Eagle Cotage.
Let’s iron out any last minute details and get ready for Diggins 2011! Hope to see you all there!

Diggins Meeting Update

The docents broke up into groups and we worked on some fun scenarios to play out on Saturday and Sunday of Diggins. Scenarios included: a shooting; a boxing match; and Sonora burning down and people coming to Columbia to look for places to live/work; among others. A few people took the scenarios home, will be expanding them further and at the May meeting, we will be assigning roles, etc.

Venue shift sign-up sheets were put out so docents could choose where they wanted to work and when.

The Green Room (Jerry Tannhauser) is looking for menu suggestions. Send the park staff an email and we’ll forward it on to him.

Danielle will be looking at the school group tours again to iron out inconsistencies. We are still looking for more people to lead school tours on Thursday and Friday. Ruth Ferguson will be making phone calls to schedule those who have already signed up.

Ben Wright had a suggestion to make a passport page for people to walk around with and ask questions of venues. Everyone agreed that this was a fantastic idea. If you are a venue head and would like to be part of the passport, please send Danielle (dbelluz@parks.ca.gov) a one sentence question that we can put into the page. This question could be something they can see in your venue or something they have to ask of the docents. Example: How much did water cost in 1852? (For the Water Company) Name two essential items you need in order to wash clothes. (For the Laundry Venue) This will be a great way for our visitors to interact with us, so think up some creative questions! These are Due May 6th.

The Diggins Forms Committee is hard at work entering all of your info. Thanks to those who have already sent in their forms and if you haven’t yet, please send them in ASAP or we won’t know you’re coming.

Due to an increase in transportation costs, this year we are requesting donations for meals. Meals include Wednesday night meeting dinner, Thursday-Sunday breakfast and lunches, and the Saturday night Survival Dinner. Donation Suggestion: $10 for the entire time; that’s 10 meals for $10! We understand that many of you travel from far distances and we appreciate your help immensely. With your donation, we hope to continue to be able to provide meals in the future. Remember, this is a “donation” and not required, but any amount would be helpful!

Venue Head Meeting

Wednesday, February 23rd, 6 PM at the Eagle
If you plan on running a venue at Diggins, please join us for a brief planning meeting.
See you there!