Bear Flag Mining Company

11/13/2025

The Steamboat Arabia museum has set a closing date of November 2026. No word yet if they will relocate or what will happen to the items. If you have not been there, it is certainly worth a trip.

For more than 30 years, the Arabia Steamboat Museum has been a cornerstone of Kansas City — a place where families discover a story buried in time, and find ...

11/10/2025

The 'Christmas in Coloma' event is happening December 13th & 14th. This is a fundraising event for the Marshall Gold Discovery Park where buildings that are not typically open are staffed by docents, and for a fee can be accessed by the public. We have been asked to open/staff the Miner's Store and Bekeart's Gun Shop buildings. If you are interested in participating and have not received an email from the park, let me (Nelson) know so the appropriate paperwork can be completed.

09/21/2025

For those of you who will be participating at Gold Rush Live, Stephanie has set the menu. All meals are researched from mid-Victorian cookbooks. The cost per day will be $20, and will cover all 3 meals. Payment needs to be made by October 3rd, unless you have made arrangements with her - that gives us firm attendance numbers, and the funds to get the food. Coffee in the morning, water, and possibly lemonade or switchel will be available. Anything else you will need to provide yourself, as well as a means to keep it cold (I have been told that bags of ice will be available during the weekend for a price). You will also need to provide your own alcoholic libations, which cannot be consumed until after public hours, and in moderation only.

06/22/2025

To all –

The Coloma Gold Rush Live event is rapidly approaching! The event dates are from October 9th through October 12th. The registration form should be available in the next week or two.

If you are planning on attending this year and have not done so with us in the past, please get in touch with me (Nelson) so I can add you to our group list and Facebook chat. That way we can keep you up to date on anything going on. The Park will also hold a series of docent training sessions you can sign up for. We’d also like people to come out for one of the 2nd Saturday Living History days prior to the event to check out the venue.

As many of you do, we believe in a top notch impression. If you have any questions or need something let me know so we can track it down. Along with our impression, we are expected to interpret to the public various aspects of life in the mining fields of this time. This means we don’t get to sit around all day (although there will be downtime) as the Park expects us to demonstrate and talk about what we’re doing. We’re hoping to improve accessibility to the ‘mining claim’ with a Long Tom to allow more public hands on activity away from the river’s edge (plus we have various cradles that can be used). This is also a good opportunity to develop any other impression you’d like to try.

As part of our group’s impression, one of our members runs a restaurant where we take all our meals (we will come up with a cost to be paid prior to the event for those participating). Another member runs a boarding house, and we should have access to a couple of the Park’s tents for those who don’t want to bring one (you can stay on site from Wednesday to Sunday). Fi****ms that were readily available in California in 1850 are allowed; however we tend not to wear them as guns and a river don’t mix well, and 1850 Coloma was rather civilized. If there is enough interest, we're reaching out to a couple of tinsmiths to make a bulk purchase of mining pans.

01/19/2025

Spent the day at Sutter's Fort representing Marshall Gold Discovery SHP.

01/05/2025