1870! I totally missed the 49ers and the gold rush! Frontier 1859 looks like an awesome game! I'm glad someone is looking to build a game with a bit more intellegence than leveling up your character to kill more things. Boy, you folks are missing a great bit of California history right now!
Here's a bit on Cottonwood, in Shasta County:
In the early 1870`s the California and Oregon (C&O) Railroad was surveying, for the best route to Oregon. Cottonwood fell along the route they selected. Jacob Foster played a major role in this history. Foster contracted with the railroad to build a depot for the railroad on the north side of the creek in addition to his hotel, tavern and livery stable, all along present day Front Street which parallels the railroad. Thus, in 1872, the coming of the railroad became the seminal event in the Cottonwood founding and the shift to the north (Shasta County) side of the creek.