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Title:
Butte record. : (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858
Alternative Titles:
  • Weekly Butte record
Place of publication:
Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.
Geographic coverage:
  • Bidwell, Butte, California  |  View more titles from this: City County, State
  • Oroville, Butte, California  |  View more titles from this: City County, State
Publisher:
C.W. Stiles & Co.
Dates of publication:
1853-1858
Description:
  • Ceased in 1858.
  • Vol. 1, no. 1 (Nov. 12, 1853)-
Frequency:
Weekly
Language:
  • English
Subjects:
  • Butte County (Calif.)--Newspapers.
  • California--Butte County.--fast--(OCoLC)fst01215262
Notes:
  • Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • Master negatives are available for duplication from:
  • Publication moved to: Oroville, Calif., July 19, 1856.
  • Published as: Weekly Butte record, Dec. 31, 1853-Nov. 4, 1854.
LCCN:
sn 93052998
OCLC:
27395121
ISSN:
2693-1214
Succeeding Titles:
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Butte record. November 12, 1853 , Image 1

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Butte Record, Oroville Daily Butte Record, The Weekly Butte Record, The Weekly Union Record, The Weekly Butte Record and The Daily Butte Record

The California Gold Rush was short lived, but its impact was profound and enduring. Between 1848 and the mid-1850s hundreds of thousands of people moved into the state in search of easily accessible gold deposits. Most of these "49ers" initially settled in the Sierra Nevada region of California, from Butte County in the north to Mariposa County in the south, establishing both mining camps and new towns in the area. Within a decade the majority of workable gold deposits were emptied, and prospectors were replaced by mechanization and capital. Most of the "Argonauts" moved either out of the region or into nearby growing towns and cities.

California "mining newspapers," as they were called by one of their first chroniclers, Helen Giffen, sprang up in these newly settled towns as the initial Gold Rush waned. Not only were they some of the earliest papers printed in the state, collectively they chronicled a region as it transitioned from often lawless and violent mining camps to permanent settlements with organized governments and law enforcement. They also recorded the changing nature of mining and, as Giffen notes, "advocated mining and land reforms that were later written into California law."

Oroville, California, located in Butte County at the head of the Feather River, was established to support the mining camp at Bidwell's Bar, some six miles to the east. John Bidwell had discovered gold on a fork of the Feather River in July of 1848. Within five years, thousands of prospectors had moved into the area, but by the late 1850s Bidwell's Bar was a largely abandoned, and many miners had moved to Oroville.

Oroville's newspapers followed a similar path. In November of 1853, C.W. Stiles, L.P. Hall, and H.A. De Courcey established the weekly publication Butte Record in Bidwell's Bar, the town's first and only paper. Hall and De Courcey quarreled and finally fought, the latter going to jail for a short time, and the newspaper changed hands. By the time it moved to Oroville in July of 1856, the Butte Record was owned by George H. Crosette, who published the weekly title along with the Oroville Daily Butte Record. Oroville had both daily and weekly newspapers for the next two decades. Crosette changed the name of the paper to the Weekly Butte Record in 1858. It became the Weekly Union Record under Smith and Woodman in 1864; and again the Weekly Butte Record under W. Demott in 1866 until it ceased publication in October 1887. Finally, the Oroville Daily Butte Record was renamed the Daily Butte Record in February 1858 and eventually relocated to Chico. Today the Chico Enterprise-Record claims to descend from the daily Butte titles.

Provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA