Author Archives: nancyleek

The Bidwell Mansion Association invites you to a PARTY! Help us celebrate John Bidwell’s 197th birthday. Tickets are $5 for adults and teens, $2 for children, and kids under 4 are free. Enjoy a concert by the Chico Community Concert … Continue reading →

On August 22 the men who had gone to Fort Hall returned. They had been unable to obtain a guide to take them across the desert. (Cue the ominous music.) They reported on the emigrants who had opted for going … Continue reading →

Saturday, 21st. Marched off in a NW direction, and intersected our trail of Thursday last, having made a complete triangle in the plain. At this intersection of the trails we left a paper elevated by a pole, that the men … Continue reading →

John Bidwell and friends were traveling slowly southward through Cache Valley, in what is now northern Utah. Sometimes they followed the Bear River, other times they had to leave the river and “journey over hills and ravines, going to almost … Continue reading →

The first newspaper published in California, the Californian, appeared on August 15, 1846, 170 years ago today. The publishers were Walter Colton and Robert Semple.The first issue announced the declaration of war against Mexico by the United States. Walter Colton, … Continue reading →

Traveling southward on the Bear River, toward the Great Salt Lake: Saturday, 14th. Left the river on account of the hills which obstructed our way on it; found an abundance of choke cherries, many of which were ripe. Road uncommonly … Continue reading →

Coloma is the site of Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where James Marshall in January 1848 first found flecks of gold in the tailrace of the sawmill he was building for Captain John Sutter. My husband and I took … Continue reading →

After traveling 6 miles the morning of August 11th, the company halted at the parting of the ways. Father DeSmet and his missionaries, along with their guide Tom Fitzpatrick were going on up into Idaho. Half the the emigrants in … Continue reading →

Traveling through the Bear River Valley: Saturday, 7th. This morning we were obliged to make an inland circuit from the river, the bluffs approaching so near the river as to rend it impossible to continue along its banks. We, however, … Continue reading →

John Bidwell was born on August 5th, 1819 in Chautauqua County, New York, near the shores of Lake Erie. Today is his 197th birthday. As he noted in his diary in 1898: BIRTHDAY (79th) – Florence had an extra good … Continue reading →