Monthly Archives: December 2011

Welcome to 2012! Here’s hoping that the year ahead will be a happy, healthy, and prosperous one for all of us. 2012 will be an important year for Bidwell Mansion. Either it will be closed by the Department of Parks … Continue reading →

By Christmas Day 1841, John Bidwell had been at John Sutter’s settlement for about a month. Sutter had enthusastically hired Bidwell and planned to send him off to the coast to oversee his acquisitition of Fort Ross. Bidwell described Sutter’s “Fort” as … Continue reading →

It seems that in 1841 California, Sutter’s establishment was like Rick’s Cafe Americaine in Casablanca. Everyone went there. Bidwell later wrote: “Nearly everybody who came to California made it a point to reach Sutter’s Fort. Sutter was one of the … Continue reading →

When John Bidwell finished rewriting his journal sometime in 1842, he sent it back to a friend in Missouri, probably in 1843, although who carried it there no one knows. He would later claim he did not intend it for … Continue reading →

John Bidwell arrived at Sutter’s “Fort” (no fort yet) on November 28th, and found Jimmy John there before him. Jimmy, who was ten years older than John, had been his companion on several adventures on the trail, notably their trip … Continue reading →