Please join the members of the Bidwell Mansion Association for our Annual Meeting on Sunday, January 29, 2012, at the Bidwell Mansion Visitor Center.  This is a free event, and if you are not already a member of the BMA, it’s a chance to join the group and meet with other history buffs.

There will be refreshments at 6 p.m. and the meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Our speakers this year are Marti Leicester and David Nopel on the topic of “The Humboldt Wagon Road.”   They have a book coming out soon from Arcadia Publishing.

The Humboldt Road was a pet project of John Bidwell’s. He envisioned a freight and passenger route that would connect San Francisco, the Sacramento River, and Chico to the gold and silver mines in Idaho and Nevada. Bidwell financed and constructed the road to carry the products of his ranch to the mines, and transport lumber, minerals, and passengers across the Sierra Nevada and down into California.

Come to the annual meeting next Sunday and find out more about this fascinating piece of California history.