The Daily Review- Hayward, California
August 31, 1972
BEAR VALLEY ONCE HOME  TO FREMONT
by Arthur Ribbel- Crosley News Service
BEAR VALLEY, Calif- This little place by the side of the road was the 
heart of and hub of Gen John Charles Fremont's country, his gold 
treasury and his home.
It also is Trabucco county, and descendants of pioneer Louis Trabucco 
still live here.

photo courtesy of Carole Thomas

Mrs. Doris Trabucco, wife of Harold Trabucco, the  grandson of the 
pioneer backed up to a fuel oil stove in the middle of the 
Trabucco-Simpson store and identified the ruins of a once-throbbing town 
where 3,000 miners; merchants and craftsmen thronged the streets on 
Saturday nights in the 1850's.
DOWN MAIN STREET, which is Highway 49, the route of the '49ers, still 
stand the thick stone wall remnants of Fremont's old store and offices, 
a fire truck nestled against one section in contrast to an ancient 
wooden wagon with rusty parts which seems to be waiting for an old horse 
to pull it away.
If your imagination is lively, you might fancy booted, bearded and 
shirt-sleeved clerks passing out flour beans, powder, shot, picks, pans, 
red flannel shirts and "red-eye" over the roughhewn counters.  And 
Fremont, the restless, ambitious adventurer, listening to the gold 
plunking on the boards.
His house, called "The White House,' was up a hill across the road from 
the store nearby, but it burned to the ground, as did another house 
built on the same spot.  Here he lived in elegant luxury, with French 
servants and rich furnishings, plus a vegetable garden, which was a 
precious rarity in gold camps.
THIS WAS PART of Fremont's 44,000-acre empire he bought for $3,000 
before the Gold Rush exploded.
Fremont ....the explored and map maker of the Far West; a leader in the 
conquest of California; the husband of Jessie Benton, daughter of the 
famous U.S. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton; Maj. Gen. Fremont in the Civil War; 
unsuccessful candidate for president; a U. S. senator from California; a 
captain in the Mexican war; man tempest; miner; landowner; flamboyant; 
courageous; intrepid.  His name is on more streets, peaks, towns, 
landmarks, signs and structures probably than any other pioneer in Far 
West history.  Some folks here seem to speak of Fremont as if he had 
just left.
The old Bon Ton Saloon is now a cafe of the same name, an old adobe and 
slate structure with the traditional Gold Rush iron doors. The 
population here is 75.
MRS. TRABUCCO said ruins across the street from her store were once a 
general store and a wine tavern, where the songs of boozy miners must 
have roared through the countryside.  Her store building is also very 
old, but intact.  There were once 13 Trabucco stores serving the miners.

FRANK TRABUCCO STORE, MT BULLION

photo courtesy of Carole Thomas

(see earlier photo of this store)

Mrs. TRABUCCO, a small graying lady, excused herself and went outside 
to pump some gas for a truck.  Joseph Trabucco’s house is on one side of 
Main Street and Harold Trabucco’s is on the other side.  Louis Trabucco’s 
old store, now a warehouse, is a reminder of boom days.  It is peaceful 
, quiet and natural at Bear Valley. There are other "Bear Valleys" in 
California and the West, but this one is in Mariposa County, 11 miles 
northwest of the town of Mariposa, which also is Fremont country.
There is the Odd Fellow's Hall (and what gold town didn't have one?) 
which serves as a museum, helping gold town prowlers to bring to mind 
level some of the drama, excitement and rustic history of gold and 
hard men.
LIKE SO MANY other towns, Bear Valley settled back into virtual 
retirement when the metal dwindled and richer diggings rose on the horizon.
Justice was speedy and harsh in those days and their jails were rugged, 
certainly no pleasure palaces. Her, on a hill above town, is the Bear 
Valley pokey, a stern slate and adobe dungeon with thick walls and an 
iron ring in the middle to which leg irons of criminals were attached.  
That calaboose must have been a crime deterrent. An 1880 school house is 
nearby but unused.

Fremont also had a famous hotel here, the Oso (Bear) House, across the 
street from his big store, a hostelry, whose register sparkled with the 
names of many famous persons, including Ulysses S Grant.. Horace Greeley 
also was prominent hereabouts, and Bandit Joaquin Murietta.

OSO HOUSE- WITH FREMONT ON THE STAGE

photo courtesy of Carole Thomas

One historian wrote:
"though out the county a tee-totaler was a curiosity."
Bear Valley had its moments of high glory and bags of gold.  Now retired 
persons and ranchers enjoy the riches of a lovely and untrammeled land.