In Columbia’s oldest brick building, bookstore owner Floyd Øydegaard greets Gold Rush buffs.
It’s easy to spend a full day here, strolling Columbia’s wooden sidewalks and observing yesteryear as proprietors in period dress fashion soap, candles and leather goods.
The big attraction here is Engine Number 3, the only 1891 Rogers lo- comotive in the United States and the most filmed train engine in the coun- try, starring in movies from High Noon to Hidalgo. On weekends from April through October and during the holiday season, the steam train revives old-style rail travel on 40-minute rides. Not to be eclipsed is Engine Number 28, featured in Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Oscar-winner, Unforgiven . The two engines share space with a movie prop area and other vintage locomotives and coaches that have ap- peared in feature films, TV shows and commercials. Jamestown itself has served as a lo- cation for films and video productions including 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the 1970s TV series Little House on the Prairie. Beyond all of the movie and train lore, Jamestown is worth the short detour just to browse for antiques along the town’s historic Main Street.
Three miles from Jamestown, at the junction of highways 49 and 108, you’ll come to Sonora, with a population of 4,866. Tuolumne County claims 54,953 residents, and Sonora, the only incor- porated town, is its largest community. Lined with buildings from the mid-1800s through the end of the Victorian era, So-
nora is home to antiques shops, galleries, museums and, remarkably, two live the- aters. The town’s most prominent feature is the 1859 St. James Church, a gothic- steepled structure said to be the oldest Episcopal church building in the state. Known by locals as the Red Church, it’s now an Anglican house of worship.
MAP BY DONNA SCHMIDT
12 COAST TO COAST Spring 2013
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