Big Valley History-
As early as 1832 records show the Pit River as an avenue of travel. The year 1832 was the first introduction to immigrant travel in Big Valley. In that year, Joseph B. Chiles led a company out of Missouri, the trip turning southward to enter California through Walker Pass.
Chilles, however, turned northward to Fort Boise, Idaho for supplies. From Boise the little group made their way to the Malheur River in western Oregon, and, by a previously unexplored route crossed to the Pit River which they followed down to the Sacramento River to arrive at Sutters Fort. Though the passage discovered by Chiles was seldom used by subsequent immigrants, the use of a portion of it pre-dates the coming of Peter Lassen by half a decade.
In 1848 Peter Lassen led a twelve-wagon emigration from Missouri to California. The route passed near Bieber and was extensively traveled during the years of 1848-1853 by emigrants seeking gold, adventure and a new life in the west. Because of Indians, the trail was little used after 1853. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 763, September 10, 1961.
Big Valley long remained unpopulated by the white man and Indians, the "No-Man’s-Land" between the protected Surprise Valley and Fall River Valleys with their forts Bidwell and Crook. It is true that occasional parties of settlers from neighboring valleys traveled the plains of Big Valley all through the 1860s and Chalk Ford on the Pit River immediately north of the present Bieber bridge was frequently used at the same time, but danger of attack from the Indians was always so eminent that the region remained uninviting to the settler.
The experience of Milton Riggs and his party of twelve from Fall River Valley with the Indians in 1864 and the Indian fight on Jasper Creek in 1867 are indicative of this unwholesome environment of Big Valley in those days. The party of eight men who came to Bull Run from Fort Jones in Siskiyou Co. in 1869 and established a camp for the brief duration of six weeks, apparently did not take to the nerve-trying atmosphere for they repaired to Fort Jones never to return to the valley.
The arrival of Patrick Gordon and A.B. Turnbull with their families in the fall of 1868 to locate about three miles southwest of Lookout, a little north of the county line, gave Big Valley its first settlers. The following spring in April 1869 Adin McDowell brought his family to the valley (farther toward Adin).
B. F. Studley and Newton Stanley in 1869 took residence on Willow Creek, three miles south of Adin.
The 160-acre Big Valley homestead claimed by Theodore Pleisch in May 1973 ? is now occupied by the town of Bieber. 1873 is the year ‘one’ for Bieber proper. Pleisch’s cabin on the east bank of the Pit River, approximately 100 yards north of the ford, was the first dwelling house on the present town site.
Antone and Will Gerig, in 1874 built two more buildings.
Pioneer people before 1875 include: C.A. Mayhew, Chester Babcock, J.K. Packwood, Ed Harris, Ed Kennedy, James Jones, Richard Ricketts, William H. Jones, Madison Calavan, Joe Curry, Will Gerig, Pete Mathews, John Walker, Will Bean, Green Smith, George Thompson, Peter Walsh, John Walsh, Frank Kenyon, Charles Kenyon.
Nathan Bieber appeared in Big Valley in 1877, and they came! More and more…!
Big Valley received their mail from their Postmaster Drake ________-blacksmith shop on the road to Adin, but not to the hard working pioneer living west of the Pit River. In 1875, Jim Packwood gathered signatures on a petition and the post office of Argusville resulted. Argusville was a ranch and stage stop located at Hillside Station near where the present state highway begins to ascend Big Valley Mountain with Columbus Chandler as the first postmaster. John Nolten took over until 1880.
Nathan Bieber secured a post office in Bieber in 1877 with himself as postmaster and he soon took over most of the businesses formerly _______ _______ Argusville.
Among those coming to Big Valley in 1888 was a B. F. Babcock from Butte County Ranch, about four miles south of Bieber. It was purchased from William Packwood. Of Babcocks coming it was written that (he considers Big Valley one of the best valleys in the state!)
Buildings in town were J.T. Boyd’s, Lewis Powers’s, J. M. Bassett’s, Brownell’s, Carlos’s and the W. F. Lamburth’s blacksmith shop in 1878 which was the first of its kind in Bieber and was located about 250 feet northeast of the store and Andrew Koegel’s Saloon was about 100 feet north of the store.
Lafayette wrote in August 1879, after a visit to Bieber, "Our little town is growing rapidly and bids fair to be a city next year. I predict a prosperous future for the town of Bieber." Yes, sir, things were beginning to move on the west side of Big Valley.
