Sunday, March 31, 2013

Favourite snapshots from Gold Rush country

The Aging Hippie and I stayed in Jamestown, a pretty sad, down-at-heel Gold Rush town, past it's best, although it did boast this attractive period shop below. I'm a sucker for any shop that calls itself "Emporium" because It always reminds me of George Bailey running down the street in Its a Wonderful Life shouting euphorically: "Happy Christmas, Emporium!"



We visited the nearby town of Columbia, where there is a street of buildings preserved from the Gold Rush era, though many of them were not the original buildings of 1849, because so many were destroyed by fire and had to be rebuilt, often more than once. This was my favourite, maybe because I used to watch Tales of Wells Fargo when I was 10 and had a crush on the lead actor, Dale Robertson:








I've just reread what I've written above and realised how influenced I've been by American films and television: so much of what I see out here is coloured with excitement and glamour, even before I encounter it. 

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