Jennifer Stice Rowe wrote: > I'm interested in Horsetown in Shasta, if anyone has any information. > I have most of the names and dates, and am looking for biographical > and historical info now. Hi Jennifer, I would say you have names and dates::)) I checked out your home page. You've really gathered alot of data. Congratulations! Here is some information on Horsetown (Shasta)- I am combining information taken from both Guddes_California Place Names_ and California Gold Camps_. On Clear Creek, near Readings Bar. The original name was One-Horse Town. Shown on Scholfield's map, 1851. According to Bancroft Scrapbooks (XIII,30), "it was named in honor of a favorite horse, the only one at the time about the camp." Gold was discovered here in March, 1848, by Major P B Reading. John S. Hittell mined here in 1849-1850. A post office was established October 12, 1852. The state census of 1852 lists it under the name One-Horse Town and includes it among the nine principal mining localities of the county. Hutchings diary, December 20, 1855 sates that there were around 600 "Chinamen" n the vicinity of Horsetown. The production was only moderate until the hydraulic mining was introduced in the fall of 1870. It is mentioned as Horse Town as early as 1852 in a letter of S G George to John BIDWELL dated August 27, 1852 (BIDWELL Papers, California State Library, California Section) Also you wrote: >My Shasta surnames are Bidwell (not Gen. John of Chico but probably related) _Historic Spots in California, California Counties of the Coast_ mentions that a nephew of John BIDWELL, a Henry BIDWELL, was the first postmaster of Spanishtown(Half Moon Bay) in San Mateo County. Perhaps another addition to your family? Have fun, Carolyn