Bidwell's Bar Bridge (MLSC)

"Bidwell's Bar","39.550846","-121.439524" was founded by General John Bidwell on the bank of the Middle Fork Feather River nine miles northeast of Oroville. It was one of the oldest mining camps in California. It was there that Bidwell struck it rich on July 4, 1848. The gold camp thrived and even served as Butte's county seat between 1853 and 1856.¹ It even had California's first, and oldest, suspension bridge. Many of its parts were shipped by Bidwell all the way from the east by ship². Bidwell Bar Day celebrates this bridge, the gold rush, and the pioneers. The camp is now under Lake Oroville. The map location using the map button above is a rough estimate of where Bidwell's Bar was once located based on historical maps at the David Rumsey Collection. Please modify if you know a more precise location!

Bidwell's Bar is where the Mother Orange Tree was originally planted in 1853.

Bidwell's Bar 1856 (MLSC)

Footnotes

1. Those Wild And Lusty Gold Camps. Alton Pryor. Pg 31-32. Stagecoach Publishing, 1999
2. Butte College California Geography lecture notes. Scot Hoiland. September 2008.