Bonaparte House, also spelled “Buonaparte,” was a roadhouse during the colonial period
located near the Bonaparte River and Rattlesnake Hill. Bonaparte House was used for public meetings, notably the 1871 meeting to protest the Civil List Act. The protests made here were considered to
be inconsequential according to Musgrave.1 Before the operation of Bonaparte House by Charles Semlin and Philip Parke -- an
irishman who arrived in the Bonaparte Valley in 1862 -- the roadhouse was known as Wayside House. This changed in 1865 with the new management.2
Under Parke and Semlin, Wayside House moved to a piece of land near the Bonaparte River and Rattlesnake Hill, subsequently re-christening it to Bonaparte House. The roadhouse
was once again renamed in 1868 to Cache Creek House under its new proprietor William “Boston” H. Samson.3 It is difficult to say for certain where the house was located as all remnants of
it are now gone; however, it seems to have been located close to the entrance of the
current day Sage and Sands trailer park in Cache Creek.4