Abandoned 
Overview
A post office camp on Humbug Creek
Columbia stood on Humbug Creek about two miles downstream from Humbug, in the hills at the southern end of the Bradshaw Mountains north of Lake Pleasant. Miners came down the creek after a rich strike at its head in 1870, and about fifty of them worked the gulches below Gold Hill from 1872 to 1874. Charles Champie built a stone house and a mill on the creek just upstream in 1882.
About 1894 another company built a mill a mile below the placers, and a camp grew up around it. The Columbia post office opened in September 1894 and served Humbug too. At its peak about 100 people lived here, with a general store, a meat market, a blacksmith, a shoemaker, a carpenter, saloons and a justice of the peace. From 1900 to 1905 C. E. Champie ran a four-stamp mill. The mines produced only about $50,000 in gold, and the post office closed in July 1915 after the Acquisition Mining Company, backed by British money, shut down.
Small-scale mining carried on for decades, and some buildings stood until about 2000. A local research group says the BLM tore them down soon after. In 2007 the site was private and posted, and the newest description we found, from September 2021, mentions only a couple of foundations.
Timeline
What we know
- A rich strike at the Tiger Mine near the head of Humbug Creek sends miners back down the creek. They find gold placers.
- About fifty miners work the gulches below Gold Hill. Swilling, Rockwall and Carpenter gulches take the names of men who worked them.
- Miners grind gold ore in arrastras, stone mills turned by animals.
- Charles Champie moves down the creek from Humbug and builds a stone house and a mill on a bend about half a mile north of the later townsite.
- Another company builds a mill a mile below the placers. Half a dozen buildings cluster around it.
- The Columbia post office opens. It serves Humbug as well.
- Joseph Champie, four, dies and is buried near the Champie mill. Family tradition blames a scorpion sting.
- C. E. Champie runs a four-stamp mill at Columbia. Some ore is shipped, but with Yuma the nearest shipping point, hauling it out is hard.
- The post office closes. The British-financed Acquisition Mining Company has stopped work, and the camp fades.
- Humbug Gold Mines Inc. starts active development on about 100 claims in the district, among them a Columbia group.
- A photo shows Columbia's buildings still standing. A local research group says the BLM tore them down soon after.
- The site is private and posted. Caretakers live at an ore-processing site just west of it, and hobby miners work the creek.
- An off-road trip report finds almost nothing left at Columbia beyond a couple of foundations.
Site map
Where Columbia stood
The townsite sits beside Humbug Creek where it bends south out of the mountains. Just west of it, on the bench above the creek, is a privately owned ore-processing site with settling ponds, which researchers in 2007 were careful to say is not Columbia itself. In 2007 they described one stone house and a fireplace or two still standing on the east bank across from the townsite, an old arrastra, and two or three palm trees that mark where the camp stood. Half a mile upstream, the boiler from Champie's steam mill still sat by the creek. The same researchers describe an older Columbia on the flats along the road toward Humbug, where two men killed in a robbery are buried; they put markers on the graves in 2006.
The historic maps below show the camp's outline. The 1903 sheet labels Columbia beside Humbug Creek, with a wagon road winding in from the west and the gulches around Gold Hill to the northeast. The 1954 sheet, at a smaller scale, names Humbug Creek and the Champie Ranch but neither camp. The 1969 sheet is the most detailed: Columbia sits in a patch of green beside the creek, with the Gold Spring Mine to the west, a cemetery, ruins and scattered graves, and the Hardtimes, Lunan, Lucky, Glint and Coolidge mines on the slopes. The 1981 sheet names both Columbia and Humbug.
- Foundations
- Stone house and fireplaces (2007)
- Arrastra
- Palm trees
- Champie mill boiler, upstream
- Graves and a small cemetery
Historic maps
Columbia on USGS maps, 1903–1981
Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.
Map & directions
Getting there
The fastest route OpenStreetMap knows comes in from the east. It leaves I-17 at the Table Mesa Road exit between Black Canyon City and Phoenix and finishes on about 15 miles of unnamed dirt tracks. We haven't driven it, and its last stretch ends on private land. Columbia Trail, the old approach from Cow Creek Road on the west, ends at a gate south of the site.
Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.
- From Black Canyon City, take Old Black Canyon Highway south to I-17.2.3 mi
- Follow I-17 south to exit 236, Table Mesa Road.5.5 mi
- Head west on Table Mesa Road, a dirt road.1.8 mi
- Leave Table Mesa Road for unnamed dirt tracks heading west over the hills. The route takes eight turns at junctions before it drops to Humbug Creek at Columbia. Navigate with an offline map.15.3 mi
- From downtown Phoenix, take Central Avenue, Roosevelt Street and 3rd Avenue to I-10, then exit 143A onto I-17 north.3.2 mi
- Follow I-17 north to exit 236, Table Mesa Road.35 mi
- Head west on Table Mesa Road, a dirt road.1.8 mi
- Follow the unnamed dirt tracks west over the hills to Humbug Creek at Columbia, as in the Black Canyon City route.15.3 mi
Road and safety notes
- OpenStreetMap tags Table Mesa Road as dirt and the 15 miles beyond it as unnamed tracks. An off-road trip report on a loop through the Columbia area, from September 2021, describes very steep, loose climbs that an open-differential vehicle couldn't make without help. Plan on high-clearance 4WD.
- An undated listing rates the road 2WD. That may describe the western approach, which OpenStreetMap shows as Cow Creek Road and then Columbia Trail, a rough dirt road ending at a gate about two-thirds of a mile south of the site.
- The townsite was private and posted in 2007, and the ore-processing site beside it is gated. Don't cross gates or posted land.
- There are no services on the tracks. Carry water, a spare tire and an offline map, and don't go alone.
- Summer heat is severe. Washes and Humbug Creek can run after storms, so don't drive into moving water.
Photos
Have photos of Columbia?
We haven’t added more photographs of Columbia yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.
The Sharlot Hall Museum holds a historic view of the townsite.
Visitor reports
Been to Columbia?
Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.
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Nearby
Other sites near Columbia
Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.
- Humbug1.6 mi NW · Yavapai
- Tip Top3.8 mi E · Yavapai
- Castle Hot Springs4.6 mi SW · Yavapai
- Fort Misery8.0 mi NW · Yavapai
- Briggs9.6 mi W · Yavapai
- Minnehaha10.5 mi NW · Yavapai
- Bradshaw City11.6 mi N · Yavapai
- Crown King12.0 mi N · Yavapai
Sources
Sources and credits
- ghosttowns.com, "Columbia": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates).
- Wikipedia, "Columbia, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation (GNIS).
- American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, "Columbia, Arizona" (Neal Du Shane, 2008): placer era, the 1894 mill and camp, post office dates, businesses, production, the 1915 closure, the buildings' removal, private land, the ore-processing site, the arrastra, Champie's mill and Old Columbia's graves.
- APCRP, "Columbia Stroll to Curly's Place" (October 28, 2007): posted private land, the stone house and fireplaces, the BLM removal, Champie's boiler, Joseph Champie's grave.
- APCRP, "Humbug": an Arizona Bureau of Mines description of the district (arrastras by 1880, Champie's stamp mill 1900–1905, the 1932 development) and Dave Burns's history.
- JeepSpecs, "Columbia Loop Trail" (September 8, 2021): what's left at Columbia, steep climbs on the trail.
- Road surfaces: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; not field-checked. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.
Photo and map credits
- USGS Columbia sheet, 1969: Columbia beside Humbug Creek, with the Gold Spring Mine, a cemetery, ruins and scattered graves: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
- Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
- Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Bradshaw Mountains 1903, 1:125,000; Prescott 1954, 1:250,000; Columbia 1969, 1:24,000; Bradshaw Mts 1981, 1:100,000.