Ridleys Ferry, later Benton Mills, is a former settlement in Mariposa County,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was located on the south bank of the

Merced River The Merced River (), in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. It is most well known for its swift and st ...

, opposite the settlement of

Bagby Bagby is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England, south-east of Thirsk. The parish had a population of 470 according to the 2001 census. The population of the parish was 593 at the 2011 Census. The pari ...

History

It was on the

Rancho Las Mariposas Rancho Las Mariposas was a Mexican land grant in Alta California, located in present-day Mariposa County, California. It was granted in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Juan Bautista Alvarado. The grant takes its name from Mariposa Cree ...

, an 1844

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

acquired in 1847 by

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

. During the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

Frémont built a

stamp mill A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operatio ...

at Ridleys Ferry, and renamed it Benton Mills in honor of his father-in-law

Senator Thomas Hart Benton Thomas Hart Benton (March 14, 1782April 10, 1858), nicknamed "Old Bullion", was a United States Senator from Missouri. A member of the Democratic Party, he was an architect and champion of westward expansion by the United States, a cause that ...

. Thomas E. Ridley operated a ferry across the

at the site from 1850 to 1852. The settlement endured during the 1850s and 1860s.

References

Former settlements in Mariposa County, California Merced River Mining communities of the California Gold Rush 1850 establishments in California Former populated places in California {{MariposaCountyCA-geo-stub