Beegum
Former town
Beegum is located in California
Beegum
Beegum
Beegum is located in the United States
Beegum
Beegum
Coordinates: 40°20′42″N 122°51′29″W / 40.34500°N 122.85806°W / 40.34500; -122.85806
Country United States
StateCalifornia
CountyTehama County
Elevation
397 m (1,303 ft)

Beegum, also known as Bee Gum,[1] is a defunct town which was located in an unincorporated area of Tehama and Shasta counties, in the U.S. state of California.[2][3] In the early 1900s, it was a mining town in the Harrison Gulch mining district.[4][5]

Starting in 1913, proposals to make the road between Beegum and Peanut in Trinity County part of the state highway system were discussed repeatedly in the California state legislature.[6][7] In 1933, the segment between Beegum and Peanut became part of the state highway connecting Eureka, California, to Reno, Nevada via Red Bluff.[8]

By 1972, California State Route 36 was moved, bypassing Beegum and leading to the eventual abandonment of the hamlet, as well as the hunting and fishing resort which operated there.[2]

History

The community took its name from nearby Beegum Peak, which was said to resemble a bee gum hive and was also inhabited by bees.[9] The town was situated next to Beegum Creek, which forms the county line between Tehama and Shasta counties.[4][3][10]

During the California Gold Rush, prospectors flocked to Beegum Creek to look for placer gold,[11] but there were no major discoveries in the Harrison Gulch district until the 1890s when the Midas Mine vein was found in 1894.[12]

Beegum served as the first stagecoach stop between Red Bluff and the coast.[2] From Beegum, stagecoaches proceeded to Peanut, Hayfork, and Eureka.[13]

A post office was in operation at Beegum from 1895,[14] and was ordered to close in January 1918.[15] In 1902, miner Fred Smith was shot and killed by his partner George Wheeler near the Beegum post office, after Wheeler discovered that Smith was having an affair with his wife.[16]

Selvester Ranch and businesses

The town was located on land that had been part of the Selvester Ranch, where the Selvester family lived for three generations.[13] The Beegum area including the family ranch was popular with hunters.[17]

Patriarch Isaac Selvester (1847–1930) purchased properties in Beegum after first settling in Maxwell, Colusa County, in 1887.[18] In 1904, he and his sons Smith, George and Joseph formed the livestock company Selvester & Sons, raising cattle, horses and mules near Beegum.[19] He put his ranch at Beegum up for sale in 1920.[20]

Isaac Selvester also conducted a freight depot and roadhouse in Beegum, until freight teams were no longer used to haul payload from mines.[18] The family business then shifted to cater to the automobile trade.[18] In the late 1920s, his grandsons Jesse I. Selvester and Smith I. Selvester each operated businesses called "Beegum Garage", causing Smith to file a restraining order against his brother and W. D. Linton.[5]

For a time, George W. Selvester operated a grocery store in Beegum.[21] In 1955, Jesse I. Selvester was serving as foreman for the Beegum Mining Company, which had built a $200,000 chrome ore concentration plant in Beegum Gorge the year before.[22]

School

The Beegum school operated for over half a century, until it was suspended in 1943 due to lack of pupils as well as a shortage of teachers.[23] In the early years of the school, as many as 30 to 40 children lived in the community.[23] One of the teachers was Maybelle B. Belote, who went on to marry Joseph Selvester in 1902.[24]

In 1929, 12 pupils were enrolled at the Beegum school.[25] In 1930, one of the three residents living closest to the schoolhouse agreed to give free rent to parents who built small dwellings near the school, so they could live there five days a week while their children attended school.[26] For a period of 15 years or more before it closed, the school taught both elementary and high school students.[23]

Highway

In 1913, a bill was introduced in the lower house of the California state legislature, requesting an appropriation of $50,000 to build a 20-mile state highway connecting Beegum and Peanut in Trinity County.[7] The Redding chamber of commerce opposed the measure, arguing that the route would be a disadvantage to the people of Shasta County.[27] The bill was the first of many to be introduced repeatedly in the California legislature over the next twenty years.[6]

After years of debate, in 1925, the California assembly passed bill No. 151 to place the road between Peanut and Beegum in the state highway system.[28] By closing the gap between Peanut and Beegum, it was argued, motorists would have a nearly straight highway across the state connecting Eureka, California, to Reno, Nevada, via Red Bluff.[28] Governor Friend Richardson subsequently vetoed the bill,[29] leading The Sacramento Union to comment: "This veto is proper. If the people of Beegum and Peanut have not enough imagination to find new names for their hamlets, at least for legislative purposes, they are not entitled to new roads."[30]

In 1930, the California State Automobile Association reported that between Red Bluff and Beegum, there was "good graveled and dirt road", but that after leaving Beegum toward Peanut, there was "a somewhat rough and rocky stretch".[31] A 1931 report by the Eureka district office of the National Automobile Club was more critical, stating: "Between Peanut and Beegum, the road is in very poor condition. There are numerous streams to be forded on this stretch, there being no bridges, and during or immediately following storms this part of the road is impassable."[32]

In March 1933, the California Department of Public Works announced that it would recommend to the California legislature inclusion of the Red Bluff–Eureka road into the state highway system.[8] By August, the state highway department kicked off road repairs, with one crew to be headquartered in Beegum, housed in five cabins constructed by George Selvester for their use.[33] In June 1934, the Red Bluff Daily News reported that the Red Bluff–Eureka highway was in "excellent shape", including the segment from "Beegum and over Beegum mountain to Noble's Station and on to Wildwood and Peanut".[34]

In 1966, the state allocated $250,000 for improvements of Forest Highway 6, the Peanut–Beegum Highway, and paving a segment of Highway 36.[35]

In 1972, the Oakland Tribune noted that California State Route 36 had bypassed the hamlets of Beegum and Peanut over the course of making highway improvements.[36] The decision to move the highway was devastating to the hunting and fishing resort then operating in Beegum.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Build Road From Peanut to Bee Gum – Project endorsed by Tehama and Shasta Counties in joint meeting". Record Searchlight. Redding. August 6, 1912. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Aho, Jill (August 25, 2009). "The bygone town of Beegum". Herald and News. Klamath Falls. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  3. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Beegum, California
  4. 1 2 "Beegum Creek". United States Geological Survey, Mineral Resource Data System. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  5. 1 2 "'By Gum' Tehaman Says Brother Can't Use 'Beegum' Name". The Sacramento Bee. April 3, 1929. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 "Future of California Highways". The Los Angeles Times. September 29, 1949. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Until the early 30s, California highways to a very large extent, were routed by acts of the Legislature and some fantastic results came out of the ensuing political scramble. At each session there was, as an example, a bill calling for a highway between Peanut and Beegum.
  7. 1 2 "Beegum-Peanut Road". Daily People's Cause. January 23, 1913. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 "Red Bluff–Eureka Road to Be Brought Into State System". Red Bluff Daily News. March 13, 1933. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Gudde, Erwin Gustav (1998). Bright, William (ed.). California Place Names (4th edition, revised and enlarged ed.). University of California Press. p. 31. ISBN 0-520-21316-5.
  10. ↑ Logan, Clarence August (1919). Platinum and Allied Metals in California. Vol. 85. Sacramento: California State Mining Bureau. pp. 48–49.
  11. ↑ Smith, Josie (2016). Tehama County. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781439658666.
  12. ↑ Klein, James (2000). Where to Find Gold in Northern California. Baldwin Park, California: Gem Guides Book Co. p. 60. ISBN 1889786055.
  13. 1 2 "Sylvester Ranch Once Stage Stop". Red Bluff Daily News. April 3, 1956. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Hislop, Donald L.; Hughes, Benjamin M. (2007). "Tehama County Place Names" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 8, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via Tehama County Department of Education.
  15. ↑ "Tehama and Sierra Post Offices No More". The Sacramento Bee. January 21, 1918. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Public Feeling Justifies Killing on Bee Gum Creek". Free Press Saturday Weekly. June 28, 1902. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Beegum Is Mecca of Many Hunters". The Shasta Courier. July 27, 1914. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. 1 2 3 "Death Takes I. Selvester, Aged Pioneer". Colusa Sun-Herald. April 10, 1930. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "New Stock Firm". Daily Evening Sentinel. Red Bluff. April 4, 1904. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "Isaac Selvester's Ranch at Bee Gum for Sale". Sacramento Bee. May 10, 1920. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Funeral Rites Set for G. W. Selvester". The Corning Daily Observer. January 17, 1950. Retrieved November 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "Chrome Mill in Beegum Gorge". Record Searchlight. Redding. February 7, 1955. Retrieved November 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. 1 2 3 "For First Time in Half Century Beegum School Fails to Open". Red Bluff Daily News. September 15, 1943. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "One Hundred Years Ago: Wedded at Christian Church". Red Bluff Daily News. November 18, 2006. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Schools Make Loss and Gain". The Morning Times / Red Bluff Sentinel. September 21, 1929. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ "School Problem Solved By Tehama Residents". Woodland Daily Democrat. Valley News Alliance. June 9, 1930. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ "Chamber of Commerce Prepares for Congress – Will oppose state aid for highway from Peanut to Beegum". The Semi-Weekly Searchlight. Redding. January 31, 1913. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. 1 2 "Assembly for Peanut–Beegum State Highway". Record Searchlight. April 10, 1925. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ↑ "Peanut–Beegum Bill Is Vetoed". The Searchlight. April 28, 1925. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ "Horse Still Has His Place". The Sacramento Union. April 30, 1925. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ↑ "Trinity Highway in Good Order". The San Francisco Examiner. September 28, 1930. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ↑ "Conditions Vary On Eureka–Valley Road". The Sacramento Union. January 4, 1931. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ↑ "State Crews on Beegum Road Now Busy on Repairs". The Corning Daily Observer. August 26, 1933. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ↑ "Red Bluff–Eureka Highway Found in Excellent Shape". Red Bluff Daily News. June 12, 1934. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ↑ "$750,000 marked for forest roads". Record Searchlight. Redding. November 25, 1966. Retrieved November 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ↑ "HIghway 36: Scenic but Dangerous". Oakland Tribune. October 19, 1972. Retrieved November 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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