As a disabled veteran wanting to learn more about his new home town, I was very surprised by the lack of tours about this very historic town. So I decided maybe I could do something in Chico like they have in SF a volunteer driven group that gives historic and topical tours of Chico.
So I am putting together 2 walking Historic Tours of Chico, one North of the Creek by Bidwel Mansion, and One south of the Creek. North of the Creek is the Avenues, old houses and big tree, a huge range of trees which earned Chico the name Tree City USA A Friend and I have been going around the Avenues with the Butte County Historic Registry, State of California Registry and some knowledge of trees. Our Idea is to build an Historic and Tree Tour of the Chico Avenues, already we have identified 18 interesting trees to talk about, and their impact on the area. Our research into the registry has turned up some nice homes and one even by a famous SF Bay Area Architects, Gunderson, the father of the Pacific Coast Movement.
The other One is going to focus on the Bidwell Masion, and South of the Creek, the city that Bidwell built. In this early phase of research and writing, I am finding that the history of Chico is directly intertwined with the history of Bidwell!
While hitting the library today I learned about the early geology of the area, and Bidwell Park. I learned about The Chico Formation, the fact that this area was an ancient seashore some 30,000,000 years ago, which created the Chico Formation. The Chico Formation consists of sandstone, silt, a thin layer of limestone accumulated along the shore of Pacific Ocean during the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. The range of the shoreline was from Redding to Bakersfield.
But true the history of Chico does not really starts until about about 10,000,000 years later with the first flow of the Lovejoy Basalt lava.This thick, black lava flow is well exposed in the Bidwell park area and up through Oroville, where Table Mountain is part of it. It is because of the Chico Formation sitting on under the Lovejoy Basalt that the wonderful vistas and dramatic table mountains were created that John Bidwell loved so much!
In Bidwell parks Devil's Hole, Salmon Hole, and Bear Hole are especially good examples of it.
Basalt is the most common type of lava rock spit out by volcanoes, I learned. But there is nothing common about wat has happened to it in the Chico area, sitting atop Chico Formation it has been undermined and erorded in wonderful ways.
But then I came across a paradox. The closest volcanoes are north of here, and are not 20,000,000 years old. The lava flows anyone can plainly see is East to West, not North to south. So where is the volcanoes that deposited these flows? In "Introduction to the Geology of Bidwell Park" written by J. Williams Guyton, he asks the question "Where are these volcanoes that deposited this basalt? His answer "No One know! " But it it the erosion of these deposits that gave the area its dramatic vistas and is responsible even for Bidwell stopping and then staying here. The Area because of these flows and the canyons and rivers they create area very picturesqueness
SOME FACTS:
The name Chico derives from the original name of the Land grant Rancho Del Arroyo Chico. In spanish Chico means little boy. and Arroyo mean little stream.
Chico land area is 26.55 miles square
Average age is 35
Chico has 4 seasons, which off brilliant colors in spring and fall, Hot Dry Summers, nd mild winters.
The Average rain 26 inches, and humidity is 37%
Founded by the spit and spirit of explores John and Annie Bidwell,
The Bidwell's loves nature and this land. Gold brought many to this area, but Bidwell was here working for Sutter years before the gold rush. As a matter of fact working for Sutter in 1843, following a band of horse thieves from Sutter's Hock Farm and then headed north toward Oregon with Sutter's horses in tow, chasing those thieves close behind lead Bidwell to discover the Chico Area. Bidwell and two companions, Peter Lassen and James Bruheim followed the trail of these horse theives and finally arriving at the present Red Bluff were able to recover the missing horses.
Bidwell was awestruck by the beauty of the countryside around the Chico Creek Area. In his diary he comments on the beauty of the snow cover peaks, the flower carpeted ranges, the lush meadows, towering oak groves,and plenty of game! It is said he had some fun chasing grizzly bears and had one close escape when a wounded grizzly charged his horse, clawing the hairs out of the horse;s tail as Bidwell wheeled and barely escaped.
Bidwell so impressed with the natural beauty of the area, that on the return journey he mapped the rivers and streams and the lay of the land. These maps became the basis for the Land Grants made by Micheltorena, the then Mexican Goverer.
The Rancho Del Arroyo Chico grant of Nov 7, 1844 made Bidwell a huge Norther California Land owner. John Bidwell was granted some 22,214 acres. Suffice it to say that Bidwell 'established his home', and a 'trading post', and as early as 1847 some experimental orchards and fields along with his extensive farming operations.
Bidwell became the founder of the town of Chico in 1860, when he laid out the streets of the city and offered free homesites along these streets to whomever would settle there.
It should be noted right here and now that Bidwell took good care of the Michoopda people that were stewards of the land before Bidwell arrived, teaching them agriculture practices and other ways of the white man. He used them extensively as paid laborers in his farming operations, and his wife brought schools to he area.
We are all more or less familiar with the story of finding Gold at James Marshall's Sutter's Coloma, east of Sutter's Fort on the American River Jan 19. 1948. IN 1848 Bidwell journeyed from his Rancho in Chico to Sutter's Fort. He had heard of the gold find, and it was Bidwell that took Sutter's Gold to San Francisco to have it tested and verified kicking off the gold rush.
End of the Basic Chico Historic Tour Introduction. I am still working on the various sites that will be includes. My idea for a down town tour is to make it "The Sites, Sounds, Art and History of Chico" Making a downtown walking tour that celebrates the some 40 murals and Community Art pieces, walks buy some of the FANTASTIC old homes from the 1800's, and hits some of the musical venues along the way, (to warm-up and have a refreshment during the cold winter, and cool off during the summer.)
If you hve an idea for a place to visit, or a story to share please do.
I am looking for information to include about James p. Duckworth and the Duckworth Trail, trapper, guide and prevision-er, and merchant and of African descent.
Information about the pioneer Cornelic Lot-Sanl
Or any other people of Color or heroic women of the area of that should be included.
Yes I am doing a huge piece on Annie Bidwell