William Cavalier Museum

"Fun with the Family"

The Columbia experience is enriched by “talking buttons” outside several storefronts. Push the museum buttons to hear about the museum displays in the windows. Tread the creaky floorboards within to see photos of people who lived here during the Gold Rush, as well as to eye huge chunks of ore, quartz, and semiprecious stones. At the height of Columbia’s fame as the Gem of the Southern Mines, $1.5 billion in gold was weighed on the Wells Fargo Express scales.