In October 1844, Bidwell went with Sutter to Monterey, where the two learned of an insurrection by leader José Castro and ex-governor Juan Bautista Alvarado.

[6] In 1845, Bidwell and Sutter joined Governor Manuel Micheltorena and a group of Americans and Indians to fight the insurrectionists, pursuing them to Cahuenga.

[6] Upon release, Bidwell headed north through Placerita Canyon, saw the mining operations, and was determined to search for gold on his way to Sutter's Fort, where he met James W.

In August 1846, he was appointed Alcalde of Mission San Luis Rey by John C. Frémont, where he served until the end of the war.

[3] From 1863 to 1864, Bidwell and other local financiers built the Humboldt Wagon Road connecting Chico to the mining districts of Nevada.

[10][11] The fort was built amid escalating fighting with the Snake Indians of eastern Oregon and southern Idaho.

Although traffic dwindled on the Red Bluff route once the Central Pacific Railroad extended into Nevada in 1868, the Army staffed Fort Bidwell until 1890 to quell various uprisings and disturbances.

On February 5, 1856, Bidwell was one of several passengers traveling down the Sacramento River on the steamboat Belle when the ship's boiler exploded, killing several people instantly.

[13] Bidwell was sitting by the stove reading a newspaper when the explosion sent a piece of shrapnel the size of a quarter directly into his skull.

Rather than seek re-election, he chose to run for Governor of California in 1867,[17] but due to his anti-monopoly stance lost the Union Party nomination to railroad lobbyist[18] George Congdon Gorham by a vote of 167 to 132.

[3] As a strong advocate of the temperance movement, he presided over the state convention of the Prohibition Party in 1888 and was their nominee for governor in 1890.

Among them were President Rutherford B. Hayes, General William T. Sherman, Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, Governor Leland Stanford, John Muir, Joseph Dalton Hooker, and Asa Gray.

The actor Howard Negley (1898–1983) played Bidwell in the 1953 episode, "The Lady with the Blue Silk Umbrella" on the syndicated television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews.

In the story line, Helen Crosby (Kathleen Case) carries official California statehood papers in her umbrella to shield them from ruffians who want to destroy the documents.