Butte County
Biographies
RICHARDSON MINERAL SPRINGS
Richardson Mineral Springs, situated
twelve miles northeast of Chico, Butte County, California, is one of the most
talked of health resorts in California.
It has always been in the possession of and developed by the Richardson
family. It is situated in a canyon known
by the government as Mud Creek, although it is a clear mountain stream that
runs through it. The mountain ridge to
the north is known at the L. T. Ridge, deriving its name from the cattle brand
the Richardson brothers acquired when they came into possession of the
land. This brand is still used by them
and is registered with the state; incidentally it is the oldest register L. T.
brand in the state of California.
This canyon where the Springs are located was the home and campground of the
Digger Indians but came into the possession of a man named Bolivar by a
squatter’s right. About the time of his
death, 1871, the Richardson brothers bought from his estate for five hundred
dollars his squatter’s right and then in accordance with the law bought from
the railroad the land given it by the state.
This procedure eliminated any trouble of a squatter’s right being legal. By this time the Indians had been moved to
reservations or had joined others tribes farther north. The possession has always been known as the
L. T. cattle range and has been used continuously for cattle and sheep range.
The Richardson family came to
California from Iowa and Indiana. P. C.
and J. V. Richardson came by ox team in 1864 to the Sacramento Valley, where
they worked. J. V. returned to Iowa in
1868 by horseback, taking several months to make the trip. The next year he returned by train with J. H.
and O. J., his brothers, and the following year their mother and father and
other members of the family made the trip to California. At this time they moved to Mud Creek Canyon
to make their home. They then held all
their possessions as partners. In 1875,
E. J., Richardson, another brother, joined them from the east with his
family. In 1887 E. J. sold his interest
to his brothers and returned to Iowa to live.
The partnership in all the lands and livestock business continued with
the four remaining brothers, J. V., P. S., Alonzo and J. H., until the year
1901, when a division was made and J. H. came into possession of the Springs property, which comprises about five thousand acres.
Many people besides the Indians knew
of the mineral waters and used them while the Springs
property was a cattle range. This revealed
to the Richardson brothers the curative value of the waters. They then built the first small hotel and
bath-house in 1899 which was operated by J. V. and his wife and two sons,
Clarence and Harry.
In 1903 J. H. Richardson married
Alice Aldersley and with the assistance of Lee
Richardson, who had come from the east, they took the active management of the Springs, which enjoyed a steady growth. About 1910 M. V., another son of E. J. and
brother of Lee Richardson, came from the east to assist with the construction
work which has been in progress ever since.
In 1913 Harry Mulock, the present assistant
manager, entered the employment of the Springs. Under these three men the Springs
has developed into one of the most modern resorts of the west.
In 1921 fire destroyed the frame
hotel and sleeping cottages, and here lies a little story—showing one of the
reasons for the prosperity of the Springs—the ingenuity and far-sightedness of
those in charge of the management. The
fire started in the attic of the four-story wooden hotel in the month of August
when the crowd was the largest and everything the driest, all conductive to a
bad fire. No guests were hurt, as all
were at dinner in the evening. The
buildings were completed burned to the ground within a few hours, but before
they had fallen in from the terrific fire the management had consulted together
and decided to try and hold the big business they enjoyed, by serving the
guests even without a hotel. This
decision marked success or failure of the Springs, as
the loss was over one hundred thousand dollars.
Within an hour the phone wires were repaired and lumber, tables, dishes,
stoves, hardware, beds, bedding and all other necessary equipment was moving
from Chico in the night like magic, while the fires still burned. Guests were housed in
cottages for sleeping quarters and to the amazement of all breakfast was
served promptly at seven o’clock the next morning in temporary kitchens and
dining rooms for over two hundred guests and seventy-five employees. This news spread quickly throughout the state
and was surely appreciated by patrons of the Springs,
for the Springs never enjoyed a larger crowd than they did the remainder of the
season. In 1924, while construction was
in progress on the new hotel, another fire destroyed barns, garages, bottling
works and other buildings. This fire
cost the Springs a loss of fifty thousand dollars or
more but was handled in the same manner as to rebuilding and service to the
public as was the previous one. These
have all been replaced by fire-proof buildings until today with its paved
highways, beautiful grounds, housekeeping cottages, modern hotel and bath-house
Richardson Springs stands for modern progress in the Sacramento Valley. The new two hundred room hotel is one of the
most modern of its kind and offers the guest every convenience. With its grocery store, meat shop,
refrigerating systems and many other modern improvements Richardson Springs has
become a city of itself. Richardson
Springs has always been known as the “Home of the Soft Shirt” and this spirit
is carried out throughout the institution.
The past and present policy of the management has been that of combining
every convenience with a feeling of friendliness and informality at a price within
the reach of all.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 391-393. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies