History of Chico, California
The city of Chico was founded in 1860 by General John Bidwell, a member of one of the first wagon trains to reach California in 1841.
These include: the construction and relocation of Highway 99E through town in the early sixties; Playboy Magazine naming Chico State the number one party school in the nation in 1987; and the establishment of a Green Line on the western city limits as protection of agricultural lands.
Chico was founded by General John Bidwell, a member of one of the first wagon trains to reach California in 1843.
In 1844, William Dickey was granted Rancho Arroyo Chico by Mexican Governor Manuel Micheltorena.
That year, Bidwell requested the county send a surveyor to lay out the city street grid.
On August 28, 1863, all Konkow Maidu were to be at the Bidwell Ranch to be taken to the Round Valley Reservation at Covelo in Mendocino County.
In 1899, Mayor J. Ellis Rodley, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of perjury in the witnessing of a forged will offered for probate.
[2] On July 10, 1905, Annie Bidwell signed a grant deed donating 1,902.88 acres (7.7007 km2) to the people of Chico for a public park.
[3] On June 4, 1921, an election was held to choose a "board of freeholders" charged with framing a city charter.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the city wrestled with the controversial issue of creating a bypass for State Route 99 through Bidwell Park.
On July 31, 1961, the first-ever aircraft hijacking on United States soil occurred at the Chico Municipal Airport.
An oxygen valve had stuck open and a blocked vent caused the gas to build up until a spark ignited it.
However, the potentially catastrophic event was overshadowed in the national news by the launch of Scott Carpenter into space.
This amendment established a "Green Line" on the west side of Chico beyond which urban development would be restricted.
This line is responsible for the continued existence of working orchards relatively close to the core of the growing city.
President Wilson announced an end to the 70-year-old tradition saying, he took Pioneer Days "out back and shot it in the head."
In 1996 the recently re-elected council member Ted Hubert died prior to being re-sworn in, and more significantly, before the selection of mayor had occurred.
The City even conducted a TV ad campaign telling people not to come downtown for Halloween.
Most recently, César Chávez Day was added to the growing list of holidays requiring such a response.
In 1998, the tower supporting the famous Diamond on top of the Senator Theatre at Fifth and Main was discovered to be leaning.
In 2003, a branch from one of the majestic Siberian elm trees planted in 1873 by John Bidwell in City Plaza fell and hit a person sitting on a bench.
