Butte County is a county located in the northern central part of the U.S. state of California. In the 2020 census, its population was 211,632. The county seat is Oroville.
Chico is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 census, an increase from 86,187 in the 2010 census. Chico is the cultural and economic center of the northern Sacramento Valley, as well as the most populous city in California north of the capital city of Sacramento. The city is known as a college town, as the home of California State University, Chico, and for Bidwell Park, one of the largest urban parks in the world.
Concow is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in the Sierra Nevada foothills covering eastern Butte County, California. Due to a decline in employment and repeated wildfires, over the past hundred years the population declined from several thousand to several dozen. On November 8, 2018, a wildfire, the Camp Fire, destroyed most of Concow, as well as the adjacent municipality of Paradise.
Bidwell–Sacramento River State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving riparian habitat on the Sacramento River and its tributary Big Chico Creek. The park is located on the border of Butte County and Glenn County. Common activities include fishing for salmon, steelhead and shad; and floating the river on inner tubes, canoes or kayaks. The 349-acre (141 ha) property was established as a state park in 1979.
Bidwell Park is a municipal park located in Chico, California. The park was established July 10, 1905, through the donation by Annie Bidwell, widow of Chico's founder, John Bidwell, of approximately 2,500 acres of land to the City of Chico. Since that time, the city has purchased additional land, such as Cedar Grove in 1922, and 1,200 acres (490 ha) of land south of Big Chico Creek in upper Bidwell Park in 1995. As of 2009, the total park size is 3,670 acres (1,490 ha), nearly 11 miles (18 km) in length, making it the fifth largest municipal park in California, one of the largest city parks in the United States, and the 58th largest park in the world.
John Bidwell, known in Spanish as Don Juan Bidwell, was an American pioneer, politician, and soldier. Bidwell is known as the founder of the city of Chico, California.
The Chico Enterprise-Record is the daily newspaper of Chico, California. Also known as the E-R, the newspaper was first published in Bidwell Bar, California as the Butte Record in 1853 and is now part of the MediaNews Group corporation, who took control of the paper from Donrey in 1999. Donrey had owned the paper since March 14, 1983.
Annie Kennedy Bidwell was a 19th-century pioneer and founder of society in the Sacramento Valley area of California. She is known for her contributions to social causes, such as women's suffrage, the temperance movement, donating parks for travelers to camp and sleep in and education. Annie Bidwell was a friend and correspondent of Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, and John Muir.
Hooker Oak was an extremely large valley oak tree in Chico, California. Amateur botanist and local socialite Annie Bidwell, whose husband had founded Chico, named the tree in 1887 after English botanist and Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. It was featured in the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn. The tree fell in 1977, and portions of it were later milled for use by local artisans.
The Texas Governor's Mansion is a historic home for the governor of Texas in downtown Austin, Texas. Designed by prominent architect Abner Cook, it was built in 1854 and has been the home of every governor since 1856. Governor Greg Abbott and First Lady Cecilia Phalen Abbott are the current residents.
Rancho Petaluma Adobe is a historic ranch house in Sonoma County, California. It was built from adobe bricks in 1836 by order of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. It was the largest privately owned adobe structure built in California and is the largest example of the Monterey Colonial style of architecture in the United States. A section of the former ranch has been preserved by the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park and it is both a California Historic Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. The Rancho Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park is located on Adobe Road on the east side of the present-day town of Petaluma, California.
Olompali State Historic Park is a 700-acre (2.8 km2) California State Park in Marin County, California. It consists of the former Rancho Olómpali and was the site of the famed Battle of Olómpali during the Bear Flag Revolt. Rancho Olómpali was purchased by the Californian government in 1977, which turned it into a public park.
Chico station is an intercity rail station in the South Campus Neighborhood of Chico, California. It is served by the single daily round trip of the Amtrak Coast Starlight service. The station building was constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1892; it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. The Greyhound bus station is located adjacent to the Amtrak station.
Honey Run Covered Bridge was a wooden covered bridge crossing Butte Creek, in Butte County, northern California in the United States. It was located on Honey Run Road at Centerville Road, about halfway in between Chico and Paradise, until it was destroyed in the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018.
The history of Chico, California, begins with the original inhabitants, the Mechoopda Maidu.
Polygonum bidwelliae is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by the common name Bidwell's knotweed. The plant was named for American suffragist Annie Bidwell, who at one time lived in the Bidwell Mansion in Chico, California. She is the person who collected the type specimen in Northern California.
Rancho del Arroyo Chico was a 22,214-acre (89.90 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Butte County, California, which ultimately laid the foundation for the city of Chico. The name Arroyo Chico means 'little stream' and refers to Big Chico Creek. The grant was located along the north bank of Big Chico Creek, east of the Sacramento River and it encompassed present-day Chico.
Henry William Cleaveland was an American architect based in New York, New York, and then San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon. He was one of the founding members of the American Institute of Architects, and several of his works have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His works include Ralston Hall, a National Historic Landmark in the San Francisco Bay Area, the original Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and the Bidwell Mansion in Chico, California.
The Park Fire was a massive wildfire in Northern California's Butte and Tehama counties. It ignited on July 24, 2024 in an alleged act of arson in the city of Chico's Bidwell Park in Butte County. Defying initial fire suppression efforts, the Park Fire grew rapidly over the following days, burning into the Ishi Wilderness and the Lassen National Forest. Thousands of people in foothill communities evacuated, Lassen Volcanic National Park closed to the public, and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. The fire burned a total of 429,603 acres before being fully contained on September 26, 2024. Fire suppression operations cost $351 million.
