A telegraph line was completed to Columbia in February, 1855. About three years later, illuminating gas became available. The gas was derived from pine wood and was distributed through wooden pipes. This service was discontinued after a few months and oil lamps served for illumination until the advent of electricity at the close of the nineteenth century. The town had four volunteer fire-fighting companies. Visitors can see two old hand-operated pumpers, one named “Papeete” and the other “The Monumental,” both of which saw service in San Francisco before they were brought to Columbia in the latter part of the 1850’s. They are equipped with hose and water buckets of leather. The first public school rented quarters as early as 1854, but in 1860 moved to the two-story brick schoolhouse, still standing. This building, one of the oldest schoolhouses in California, was used for classes until 1937. During its boom years Columbia’s streets were often crowded with horse-drawn traffic. Stage coaches arrived and departed daily, and great freight wagons came from Stockton with provi- sions and merchandise for the stores and miners. Some of the restaurants were rather elaborately equipped. The robust miners, most of whom were young men, found diversions from their arduous labors in gaming rooms, dance halls, pool halls, and bowling alleys. Small circuses and theatrical troupes came to town, and there were occasional bull and bear fights. There were a choral society, two volunteer military companies and a 30-piece band. Although there was some crime, the town was, on the whole, quite orderly. The wildest excitement prevailed in the evening of October 10, 1855, when a mob took a suspected murderer from the jail and hanged him from the timbers of a high flume. For many years the town had a colorful Chinese colony. 5