The bridge has four wire cables, each cable containing 300 wires of size No. 10. There is a span of 240 feet. The roadway is eighteen feet wide in the clear, and the abutments are twelve feet high. The bridge never paid very large dividends. The heaviest stockholders at the time were Lewis and Gluckauf. Many years afterward the stock deteriorated greatly in value, and some of it has been sold as low as twelve and a half cents. At present the heaviest stockholders are D. N. Friesleben, J. M. Brock and R. T. Van Norden. Brock is president, Friesleben treasurer, and Isaac R. Ketchum secretary.

After the fire E. S. Dickenson opened a large clothing and hardware-store on Newcomb street. Lattimore & Brother was another new firm, and Dutton & Co., the unique advertisers, opened a store over on old Mother Cooper's side hill," where they sold "liquor and coarse fodder, fit for strong stomachs." Russ Johnson was the company of the firm.

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The first chartered Masonic lodge in Butte county was the Butte Lodge, No. 36, F. & A. M., which received its charter in 1854. It had run for some time under dispensation of the grand lodge of the state. The first officers were: R. C. Baker, W.M.; J. B. Smith, S. W.; A. B. Newcomb, J.W.; J. Gluckauf, T.; P. H. Harris, S.; G. W. Hess, Tyler. The original membership was nineteen. In the summer of 1854, shortly after obtaining its charter, all the records and papers were burned. They got a new charter and continued until 1864, when it was surrendered. Fifteen members were reported at the time, but they were so scattered it was impossible to keep up the organization. A lodge of Odd Fellows was organized March 24, 1855.

In the winter of 1855-56, Bidwell began to decay. The gradual decline of her mining interests, and the unparalleled attractions offered by Oroville, not only lost her the county-seat but her whole population as well. Bidwell literally "petered out." Most of her miners made a stampede for the rich bluffdiggings at the rising town; her business and professional men, all more or less directly interested in mining, rushed to secure choice locations for traffic or practice; her newspaper, the pioneer sheet of the county, deserted her, and Bidwell was soon a "deserted village" indeed. Yet a few remained. Hess & Chamberlain continued in business for some years afterwards; and John Bendle, who had purchased Gluckauf's stone house and business prior to the dissolution of the town, still maintains his position. The only residents of the place now, are Mr. Bendle, John Hida, Isaac R. Ketchum, Alexander A. Totman, and about a mile from the old town-site, Mrs. Fitzgerald. Mr. Ketchum has on his place the largest and finest orange-tree this part of the state has produced. It is constantly laden with magnificent clusters of the luscious fruit, and hundreds have gone to Bidwell's bar for the sole purpose of seeing it.

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HAMILTON.

General Bidwell was one of the first white men to visit the place where the town of Hamilton afterwards stood. It was in 1848, after returning from his trip to San Francisco, he, in company with others, camped for the night on the bank of Feather river. While supper was being prepared, he wandered out on the bar and discovered some small particles of light, scale gold. During the following year settlements were made in the vicinity, and in the spring of 1850, several parties were living at Hamilton. One of the first to take up his abode here was a Mr. Hamilton, a nephew of Alexander Hamilton, who, in company with A. N. Morgan, proceeded to lay out a town. This year was prolific in towns, several of which intervened between Hamilton and the southern line of the county. Hamilton became a candidate for the county-seat at a very early age, and at the election of June 10, 1850, received 196 votes, casting herself a vote of seventy-eight. On the twenty-seventh of September, she was successful, and became the capital and seat of justice. Shortly after the removal of the officers to Hamilton, there were three hotels running at the place, besides old Mrs. Nichols' boarding-house. The landlords were

Edward Taylor, who had purchased his house of a Mr. Denton, Tom Gray and A. W. Morgan. Seneca Ewer, who practiced law, kept a store, also; and another was subsequently run by Burrows & Cheese

man.

Besides these establishments, there were two saloons that dealt in a fine article of nose paint. On the eighteenth of October, 1850, a license to run a ferry-boat across the Feather river at Hamilton was granted to Clark Holdings. Hamilton was a busy place for three years. It was intended that it should be the head of steamboat navigation, but few boats ever visited it. Among the then residents of Hamilton were Mr. and Mrs. Lathrop, afterwards of Oroville, and a Mr. Duncan. While the county-seat was at Hamilton, a man sent from Colusa county to the county-jail, on some heavy charge, committed suicide in his cell, by cutting his boots into strips and hanging himself with them. After the removal of the county-seat to Bidwell, the town languished, and finally disappeared altogether. In 1854, the Hamilton hotel was run by C. C. Catlett. Mr. Taylor's hotel was conducted by him until 1855, when it was burned to the ground. Mr. Robert Moore is now the sole occupant of the town-site, and one visiting his pleasant home can hardly think that a busy little village was once here.

THOMPSON'S FLAT.

This town is one of the ancient settlements of the county that has risen to prominence, and settled back again to obscurity and quiet. The first miner who settled in the vicinity was a man by the name of Davis, and he began to hunt for auriferous deposits as far back as 1848. He was soon joined by others, and a little mining camp was formed. The mining at that time was done along the river bank, and the place was known by the title of Rich gulch. It did not receive its present name until several years after. Among the early residents of the place were George Marquis, John Thompson, George Thomp son, R. D. Hosely, M. B. West, E. A. Halstead, L. French, Levi Smith, Davidson and Lawrence.

Rich gulch, in 1852, began to attract considerable attention, and was known far and wide. Because of the scarcity of water at the surface-diggings, gold could not be taken out in sufficient quantities to pay the large returns expected from the rocker and the long tom, so, in the fall of 1852, two companies were formed for the purpose of bringing water to the diggings by ditches. George Thompson was the principal in one company, and the other was under the management of Sam Lawrence. The works projected were not on a very large scale, and in these days would hardly receive a passing notice. drew its water supply from George Snape's spring, not over three miles away, while the other tapped the Myers spring, equally distant. These were important enterprises for the place, and added greatly to its prosperity.

The flat itself is three miles in length and two in width, and over its entire surface it then offered some inducements for working the soil. In 1854, it became evident that there was not room on the side of the hill for the population that would occupy the town. Setting the example to his neighbors, Levi French moved up to the flat, where there was abundance of elbow-room, and started a store. George Thompson soon followed with his immense cloth tent, that furnished hotel accommodations for the million, and merchandise of all kinds for those who possessed the collateral. Thompson, from whom the flat takes its name, is described as an exceedingly clever and likewise whole-souled man.

In the spring of 1854, still another company was formed to bring water to Thompson's flat from Sharmer's ravine and Cottonwood. Harris Soule superintended the building of the ditch, which was completed the following winter, and was nine miles in length. About this time a water-right was taken up and recorded by Walker & Wilson, merchants of Marysville. During 1854, they surveyed and completed their ditch from Little Butte creek to Sinclair flat, near Pence's ranch, and there let it remain until the spring of 1856, when they had a route surveyed around Table mountain to Thompson's flat, and