Columbia is an unincorporated community in Tuolumne County, California, set in the oak-dotted foothills of the Sierra Nevada along the Mother Lode, the gold-bearing belt that drew fortune seekers in the mid-nineteenth century. Founded during the Gold Rush around 1850, it boomed as a mining town before declining as the easy gold played out. Today it is best known as the site of Columbia State Historic Park, which preserves one of the most complete nineteenth-century Gold Rush streetscapes in the West and holds the largest single collection of surviving gold rush-era structures in California. The historic district is the heart of the community. Visitors walk wooden sidewalks past restored brick and frame buildings, pan for gold, ride a stagecoach, and talk with costumed interpreters, while shops, a bakery, and historic hotels operate out of the original structures. Annual living-history events, including recreations of an 1850s mining camp, bring the town's past to life. Surrounding the park, the broader Columbia area includes residential neighborhoods and Columbia College, a community college in the Yosemite Community College District whose campus sits just outside the historic core. Daily life in Columbia is quiet and closely tied to its setting. The community lies along State Route 49, the Mother Lode Highway, a few miles northwest of the county seat of Sonora, and residents can reach the shops, schools, and medical services of Sonora within minutes. Tuolumne County Transit provides bus service through the area. To the east, the Stanislaus National Forest and the high Sierra rise toward Yosemite National Park, while New Melones Lake and the Gold Country's wineries and river recreation lie close by. Public education is provided by the small Columbia Union School District, which operates Columbia Elementary; high school students attend the Sonora High School District. The community suits people drawn to Sierra foothill living, Gold Rush history, and a rural, tourism-flavored small-town atmosphere within reach of Sonora and the mountains. With roughly 2,700 residents, Columbia is as much a living museum as a modern community, and that dual identity is precisely its appeal.