In the late 1800s, the green gold of California's inland timber belt included the long-coned sugar pine and cinnamon-dusted ponderosa pine of Big Chico Creek Canyon. Tucked into the steep terrain of present-day Butte and Tehama Counties, the bustling West Branch Mill logging operations moved timber from the foothills east of Chico to waiting markets in Sacramento, Marysville and San Francisco. Local author Andy Mark recounts the lesser-known history of the West Branch Mill, recalling a time when resident physician Newton T. Enloe treated the daring men who faced daily peril, John Bidwell's bumpy and sometimes treacherous Humboldt Wagon Road was essentially the only route to town and Big Chico Creek was lined with an elevated flume running lumber and ambulance rafts.
Andy Mark worked for the Western Pacific and Union Pacific railroads for twenty one years before returning to college, where he majored in Mathematics and Psychology at California State University, Chico. Mark currently works as a statistical consultant and data analyst. His article, "1859 Butte County White Settler-Indian Conflicts, "? appeared in Butte County Historical Society Diggin's (Spring 2010).