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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Butte Record (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858 Weekly Butte record

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About Butte Record (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858

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

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Butte Record (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858

Other Title

  • Weekly Butte record

Dates of Publication

  • 1853-1858

Created / Published

  • Bidwell, Butte County, Cal. : C.W. Stiles & Co., 1853-

Headings

  • -  Butte County (Calif.)--Newspapers
  • -  California--Butte County
  • -  United States--California--Butte--Oroville
  • -  United States--California--Butte--Bidwell

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Nov. 12, 1853)-
  • -  Ceased in 1858.
  • -  Published as: Weekly Butte record, Dec. 31, 1853-Nov. 4, 1854.
  • -  Publication moved to: Oroville, Calif., July 19, 1856.
  • -  Master negatives are available for duplication from: California Newspaper Microfilm Archive; positive copies may be purchased by the reel; for further information consult the CNMA at: http://cbsr.ucr.edu External
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Weekly Butte record (Oroville, Calif. : 1858) 2693-1230 (DLC)sn 86058108 (OCoLC)14200917

Medium

  • v.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn93052998

OCLC Number

  • 27395121

ISSN Number

  • 2693-1214

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Butte Record Bidwell, Butte County, Cal. -1858. (Oroville, CA), Jan. 1 1853. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn93052998/.

APA citation style:

(1853, January 1) Butte Record Bidwell, Butte County, Cal. -1858. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn93052998/.

MLA citation style:

Butte Record Bidwell, Butte County, Cal. -1858. (Oroville, CA) 1 Jan. 1853. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn93052998/.