Despite 'gimmicks' Columbia fades

     The dream of a great urban center eight miles east of Merrillan was formulated in the early 1890s during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
     Walls of a Chicago real estate office were lined with drawings depicting the booming metropolis of Columbia in Clark County.
     Pictures showed an oil derrick piercing the sky, a steamer lying alongside a large wharf, brick hotels, business places several stories high and large residential areas surrounding the business section.

Common to buy lots

     Buying land sight unseen was common in those days and people from all over the United States and several foreign countries bought lots in Columbia. Many families traded valuable Chicago and other urban property for lots in the Columbia Utopia, thinking they would quickly become wealthy in the new industrial center.
     When these families arrived to claim the "valuable" lots, they found only acres of cut-over timberland with only a few loggers' shacks where the metropolis was to have been. They also found the creek running through Columbia had barely enough water to float a rowboat.
      Several families took the next train back to Chicago, but most had invested their last dollars in the new town and had to stay.

Stayed and struggled

     Those who stayed established a general store, school, church and a hotel. After a great deal of hard work, land was cleared and small farms started.
     As everyone was in the same "boat," each family helped others until homes were established.
     The "Wisconsin Leader," a newspaper published at Merrillan, made sever references to the newcomers. "Another train of Columbia land owners went out on the Branch (Marshfield Railroad line) last week to look over their new 'city' lots. A good share of them soon came back on their way back to Chicago, thoroughly discouraged and admitting they'd been hoodwinked."

Why not a gold rush?

     They were after big profits, and as P. T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
     A sure way to populate an area in a short time was a gold discovery. "Why not have a gold rush to Columbia?" they reasoned.
     A member from the Chicago office was sent to the hills of Columbia and salted a little gold. He made a special effort to throw a few small nugget in a farmer's chicken yard.
     Before long the farmer had chicken for dinner and his wife found a gold nugget while cleaning the bird.

Word spreads rapidly

     Word spread and soon a gold rush was on. Train after train of prospectors came through Merrillan where they stopped to purchase mining supplies and ask directions to the best gold hills.
     Merrillan merchants tried to dissuade the gold seekers, and many returned home before reaching Columbia. Within a few months the rush was over and not an ounce of gold had been found.
     The Land Company's business was slowed for a few years. Only a few farms and timber tracts were sold. However, plans were being quietly made for the next boom scheme.

"I've struck oil"

     One day a farmer went to his well and found the water didn't smell right. When he tasted it he began calling his wife and neighbors. "There's oil in my well! I've struck oil!"
     An oil company was quickly organized and drilling began. Drilling was done on the creek bank, a mile or more from where the oil "discovery" was made.
     This site may have been selected because of the driller's need for water conveniently at hand. All that was found was sand and bed rock.
     Years later a young man admitted he had primed the pump with oil to start the boom.

Company sold most of land

     By the end of the "oil rush," the Land Company had sold most of its land was content to let Columbia sink or swim.
     All business buildings of the original town are gone; the last was razed in 1953.
     Nostalgic memories of Columbia still linger among the older residents. Mrs. Leslie Sherman of Merrillan, who grew up on a farm near Columbia, said: "We worked hard to make a living there and everyone tried hard to lighten each other's burdens.
     "If I had my life to live over, I'd still want to spend it there because everyone was so kind to his neighbor."
     

- Jean Anderson

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.