I want to share my reactions to a bit of history with you. Yesterday I transcribed the 1st page of the 1850 California Butte County census. The township isn't given. On this page were 40 men and two women. No children - no families. They were all 21 or older. These were young people - 29 of them under the age of 30. The oldest were two men aged 41. The only non-white was a black man from Mo. He worked as a cook. Nineteen were from New York. Ten were from outside the US. One woman didn't state where she was from. The other was from Germany. They were 22 & 23 years old. Twenty-nine of the men gave their occupation as Miner, five were Inn Keepers, two were Cooks, two were traders, and one gave his occupation as "Gardner", one as "Herding". The ladies were not required to give their occupation. There were nine Dwellings (living places) counted. The census taker just counted each place as a "family", not taking note of the different surnames as separate, unrelated people. I had never thought of the 49ers as being so young. The movies and novels always portrayed them as being far older as a group. Not one "grizzled old miner" in Butte county so far. Butte County (one of the original counties created in January, 1850) at that time was roughly North to Red Bluff, South to the Yuba River, East to the Border of the Utah Territory (approximately where the CA state line is now), and West to the Sacramento River. Before 1848, there were only a few land grants up here. I can only think of seven, there were probably more. These were huge blocks of land. One could ride all day and not meet another person. When I figure out how, I will post the census as I transcribe it to the list if anyone is interested. Jan Steck in Vina, California [email protected] "I'm grouchy 'cuz I'm good at it."