This historian thanks Katie Quinn of Lewiston for forwarding this letter in Mr. Edwin W. Scott's handwriting. Thanks also to Ms. Marty Colley who recently discovered this valuable artifact. This is the most informative piece of early Lewiston history that I have ever seen. My notations are in parentheses throughout.

Dear Friends, The things I am going to tell you about may not be in regular order as to dates, but they are all things that have taken place here at Lewiston and the surrounding country.

Lewistown (as Lewiston was originally called), was started about 1850 by a Mr. Lewis with his Trading Post, and the town grew around his place of business and was named for him. In those days, and til about 1858, it was spelled Lewistown.

Mr. Lewis hired men to build a bridge across Trinity river in 1852 that was used by pack trains because there were no roads that early. This bridge was washed away by floods on March 3, 1855. A new bridge was completed in October the same year.

Several bridges were lost at Lewiston. They were all toll-bridges until Mr. Phillips sold the next to the last bridge to Trinity County. This was a covered bridge and was operated by the county as a free bridge for a number of years until the floods of December, 1899 washed it away.

The present bridge was built in 1900. I lived in Lewiston at this time and watched much of the construction.

I might add that Mr. Lewis built a house and lived in it these early years. This house was purchased by my parents in 1891. I was born in 1892. Our family lived in this house most of the time...In 1948, William Richards and May Richards, my sister, moved to Weaverville. My father added a two-story addition to this house and it is still in use today. (The historic "Lewis-Scott House was lost to fire in October, 2005)

One branch of the trail from Shasta came through Lewiston and crossed the lower end of Rush Creek, then continued over Browns Mountain to Weaverville. Another branch of the trail went farther south and came down Grass Valley Creek past Lowden Ranch and after fording Trinity River, went over Browns Mountain and on to Weaverville.

William Lowden put a bridge across Trinity River at Lowden Ranch in 1854. This was used by pack trains until Mr. Lowden's road from Weaverville to Tower House was completed in March of 1858.

The Lowden Road from Lewiston via Rush Creek to Weaverville was completed in the fall of 1857. I do not find the record of when the road was built from Lewiston to Lowden Ranch, but I think it (was) about this time or possibly after Lowden's Road to Tower House was completed.This road was also extended during this period on down to Douglas City. The Lewiston to Tower House road known as the Turnpike was not completed until May, 1866.

In March, 1867, all the road traffic was going over this new road because floods had completely destroyed parts of the road going down Grass Valley Creek.

(A "Mr. Pendleton" came to Trinity County in 1849. He headed a supply company for miners. He and the others in his company built a bridge across the Trinity on or near the Lowden Ranch. But a "freshet" came in the fall and took it out. That group of supply men saved many miners on the Salmon River during the "killer" winter of 1852. It is estimated that that winter killed 5000 miners in northern California and the Sierra's. Mr. Pendleton, in the 1860's was hired to build a stage road from Trinity Center north over Scott's Mountain, now Highway 3. Six miles of the original road on the south slope is saved by Cal Trans. So when you hit those first few steep turns, thank Mr. Pendleton. It was a "new" road to Oregon to bypass problems with the Modoc Indians on the "Old Oregon Trail" northeast of Redding during the 1860-1870 period.)

In 1874, there was a post office established at Lowden's Ranch and the stage contractor changed the stage to the road over Buckhorn, Grass Valley Road. This made a side run of the stage from Lowden's to Lewiston. This did not please the Lewiston people and their repeated protest finally caused the return of stages to the Turnpike Road.

I have no record of when the road was built from Lewiston to Deadwood, but the road from Deadwood to French Gulch was completed in 1883. Soon afterwards, the stages from Redding were coming through French Gulch, Deadwood, Lewiston and via Rush Creek Road to Weaverville.

From then on, there was a seperate mail contract to Lowden Ranch. When I was young, this mail was carried horseback by Jean Wilson, whose married name was Jean Widner.

The road to Minersville was not all put on one side of the river until 1902, but there was a road with many fordings of Trinity River that was in use many years earlier. This road with many fords continued on up to Trinity Center.

The road from Weaverville to Trinity Center was completed in 1860 and was one of the first roads built with county money. Most of this money was Poll Tax. Each adult man had to pay $7.50 per year to be eligible to vote, or in lieu of cash payment, they could work three days on road work (for) $2.50 per day, which was good wages in those days, even though they had to board themselves. In those years, there were no women voting, so this did not apply to them.

In all the years of stages through Lewiston, which continued until about 1915, the stages changed passengers in Lewiston and the stage passengers going towards Weaverville had supper at the Lewiston Hotel. Going towards Redding in the early years, they ate at Tower House and later at French Gulch.

In the earlier years, the Lewiston Hotel was run by a Mr. Berber and, at one time later, it was run by Mart Van Matre. Then, in the early 1890 years, John Koll took over and was still running it in the middle 1920 years. In 1897, John Koll's hotel was lost to fire and was rebuilt in 1898. One time afterward, there was a roof fire, but it was put out. This is when they replaced the shake roof on the hotel with with corrugated galvanized iron roof. I lived in Lewiston when th