We walked across the bridge and at the end of the trail were the park hosts....we visited with them for awhile. We wouldn't want their job.....they work 30 to 40 hours per week. We counted our blessings, we have such a great job!
These gals and I became friends this summer, Denise and Irene, they walk the trail everyday with their dogs.
They know this area well and kept asking me....."have you been to.....they asked if we had been up in "gold" country, where gold was first discovered in California. I hadn't. They wanted to take me to see the largest piece of gold mined in California. On the way, Denise stopped at Columbia State Historic Park .
Columbia is a living gold rush town, located in the heart of the California Mother Lode.
You can ride the Stagecoach or pan for gold.
There are a variety of shops and boutiques, ice cream parlors, saloons, and this candy store!
The gold was panned and pretty much extracted any way they could.
This sign says they were armed with pickaxes, shovels and powerful jets of water. Long after the mining in this area stopped, the devastation remains.
It will be many more years before anything substantial grows again in the boulder-strewn fields that surround the town.
Back in the car and having a few snacks....we continued on our journey.
We were going to Ironstone Winery, where in the Heritage Museum is kept the largest piece of gold mined in California......and maybe some lunch!
Beautiful scenery.
We reached Ironstone Winery near the quaint little town of Murphys, in the heart of the Sierra Foothills
They have concerts here every weekend in the summer.
When the girls told me they wanted to show me the largest piece of gold mined in California, I was NOT sure what to expect.....but this wasn't it!
This is the largest Crystalline Gold Leaf specimen in the world. Weighing 44 pounds it was discovered on Christmas Day in 1992 by the Sonora Mining Company; just twenty miles from it's current home at Ironstone Vineyards.
The room that it is on display in ....is actually a vault.
This piece of gold was far larger than what I had imagined!
Time for lunch......
We had a delicious lunch and a little wine tasting...... great day with friends.
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