What’s new?

I took a trip to England in June and did absolutely nothing related to California history. I hiked the ancient Ridgeway trail and spent a few days in London. Here is a picture of my crew in Avebury, before the weather turned warm and sunny.

I came back from the UK and promptly came down with a mild case of COVID, my first. I got over that pretty quickly.

I walked by Bidwell Mansion today. As you can see from these photos, it is completely engulfed in scaffolding. For information about the renovation project, look at this State Parks page. The roof will be replaced, the balusters and urns and other woodwork will be evaluated and repaired if necessary, and the mansion will be repainted inside and out.

A year ago I published a post on this blog about a painting of Bidwell Mansion by John Frederick Holtzman. If you are interested to know more about the artist, there is an article about him (and also Augustus Koch), by John Rudderow and Deana Glatz, in the Summer 2024 issue of the Butte County Historical Society Diggin’s.

Holtzman lived in a number of northern California communities, from Mokelumne Hill to Grass Valley to Santa Cruz. He only spent a couple of years in Chico. It must not have been easy to make a living as an artist, even if he also painted houses and carriages.

I hope your summer is going well. Stay cool and read history!