Bidwell was born in upstate new york in 1819, and his family moved around. They were frontier homesteaders and then they moved from new york into pennsylvania and then ohio. And then in his early 20s bidwell left his family and had about to what was then the front tier in iowa and missouri. He tried developing a claim in westerwestern missouri and gaven that after just a year or two. And decide to head to california, which was then still mexican territory. He helped organize what became known as the bidwell bartleson party, and again, great claim to fame is the first party of overland tours to california. Bidwell like a lot of early american got his first job working for john sutter at sutter scored. And there hes learned firsthand californias rich potential asset Agricultural Producer and as a place to raise livestock. Sutter had herds of cattle and large wheatfields, and bidwell went to work for sutter and kind of got some good onthejob training for what would later become his own operation of years later at rancho chico. In 1846 when John C Fremont and a small group of armed american explorers were moving up and down california, their presence in the state encourages american settlers who were interested in separating from mexico and kind of imitating the example of the texas rebellion of 1836, they with fremont encouragement took action and seized the mexican garrison at sonoma, the northernmost mexican settlements. And then they raised their flight. Bidwell didnt participate in that revolt. He was still at sutter sport but word quickly arrived that revolt had taken place, and at that point bidwell left stutters for and joined the rebels at sonoma and was active with that from that point forward. And then the whole revolt was oriented once word got out that the United States had already gone to war with mexico. And so the bear flag rebels gave up their own independent rebellion and joined up with Fremont Group and became part of the california battalion under free fonts command. And then they all ended up participating in the california phase of the mexican war, participating in the american conquest of california. But in the course of that he did some exploring in the sacramento valley, helped other settlers locate land, including theodore. In a process of some of those journeys north of sacramento, he came to be familiar with the chico creek and the chico area. And he was very attracted to it and its potentials. During the gold rush, when the gold rush occurred in 184849, bidwell did quite well and made quite a bit of money mining gold in the Feather River area in what became known as bidwell bar, just north and east of oroville on the Feather River here it is net underneath the waters of the oroville reservoir. With the money that he earned in the two seasons of mining in 4849, bidwell had enough money to buy the rancho chico property from the original mexican grantee, william dickey, who bidwell had helped locate on the property. And in the process of locating that rancho grant, bidwell came to really admire the property. When he had enough money, then he came back and then bought it. Starting in 1849 bidwell located on the rancho chico property and begin developing what became one of the great model farms of late 19th century california. We are about a full decade, a decade of the 1850s, the settlement of chico and rancho chico were one and the same thing. Rancho chico is located in the domain of the much of the tribe, a branch of the indian peoples who populated most of what is now puke county. They did have some village sites on rancho chico and when bidwell moved on to the property, he reach an accommodation with them and their village site remained on rancho chico, very close to his adobe and later to the mansion itself. And they provided bidwell with his initial labor force on the rancho. They didnt provide all of the labor as the rancho group if they remained a core part of the labor force throughout the entirety of john bidwell sliced white up until he passed away in 1900 life. But bidwell never did participate in californias legalized system abound indian slavery. The indians he employed were always wage earners living on rancho chico. In early 1860 decided to lay out the count of chico which he platted on part of his property south of chico creek on the opposite side of the creek from his adobe at that time, his first residence on rancho chico. In 1860 he laid out the town of chico and at that point the Community Starts to grow. And later on in 1862 begins to build a mansion after was elected to congress in 1864. And while he was away, before he left for washington he arranged to have the mansion built, and construction of the mansion began in 1865 and lasted for three years. It was completed in 1868. 1868. So when he returned from washington d. C. , he returned to the mansion. And he also returned a married man and brought back from washington his wife who had met while serving in congress. The Bidwell Mansion has hosted many distinguished visitors over the course of his life and her life as well. She survived him by 18 years so she passed away in 1918. And during that time i hosted a lot of important visiting dignitaries. This was the place to stop or anybody visiting chico. Probably the most single famous visit tha the place it was a vit of president rutherford b. Hayes who was accompanied by the great civil war general William Tecumseh sherman. Both sherman and hayes state at the Bidwell Mansion, and bidwell conducted them on a number of doors including a tour to the famous cherokee hydraulic mining site east of chico and north of oroville. I think that was probably the most famous visit here. John muir was a close friend and he spent a number of visits, staying with them at the Bidwell Mansion. His most important and longlasting relationship with the federal government though starting with the states in congress was his close relationship with the United States department of agriculture. He was constantly being sent, constantly corresponding with officials in the usda and was constantly receiving from them different crops that i wanted tested out in californias soil and climate. And they really used rancho chico is one of the early excremental farm for the actually owned and ran their own. Bidwell had an extensive correspondence with the usda, and eventually was set up its agricultural experiment station for the state of california in what is now bidwell park. It became in effect a demonstration farm in the days before there were governmentsponsored government farms by either the state or the federal department of agriculture. Rancho chico was the site of constant experimentation with different crops, and also ornamental plants that bidwell introduced to california, along with agricultural produce. The mainstay of the rancho was wheat production, because californias Early Agricultural base was the production of wheat, starting during the gold rush. Produced initially with the booming domestic market of the gold rush, the gold rush population, but increasingly geared towards export to great britain. California became one of the leading suppliers of wheat to the industrialized populations of great britain. And the bulk of californias wheat crop was sent every year in wooden sailing ships from San Francisco around cape horn all the way back up the atlantic to liverpool england and bidwell was a big participant in what was known as the bonanza wheat era of california agriculture. But bidwell led the movement to transition california agriculture into the more lucrative specialty crops that california became famous for, including oranges. Bidwell did and extremities with oranges, although they didnt do his will in this part of the state as they did of course in southern california. But he was an important pioneer of the almond crop, which is still a major crop here in the northern sacramento valley. And eventually rancho chico was covered with a wide variety of orchard that produced both deciduous fruits and citrus fruits and not crops as well. Bidwell passed away at the age of 80 in 1900. He was a strong and vigorous act of man right up until the end. In fact, he passed away as the result of a heart attack suffered when he was out clearing brush and clearing roadway on rancho chico. So he remained very strong and physically active right up until the end. Today, there are lot of visible legacies here in chico at least of his influence and his lice work. The mansion of course stands as something of a monument to his work and his activity. Its really one of the finest architectural, historic, piece of historic architecture in northern california, one of the best examples of italian villa, victorian architecture in northern california. And, of course, important part of his legacy is California State University chico. Bidwell was one of the cofounders of the university which began as the Northern Branch of the state Normal School in 1886 is when they agreed to locate a campus here. And a lot of, the decision to locate the campus here had to do with his offer of land free to the state. The original campus was carved out of rancho chico. He donated eight acres of his Cherry Orchard located off the south bank of chico creek free of charge to the state of california, and that offer help seal the deal and allowed chico to gain the campus at the expense of some rival communities that were also in the hunt to house that campus. I would say that john bidwell was Lasting Legacy is in california agriculture. If you look at california today is still the number one agricultural state in the union, producing a rich variety of crops come Something Like 250 different crops and Livestock Products are produced by california. Its been the number one farm state in america since 1948. I think that legacy of rich Agricultural Production and diversity owes a lot to the work of john bidwell and what he accomplished here in rancho chico. If you look at the production of rancho chico, what was being done on this property really was, set the template really for what became california in the 20th century as an Agricultural Producer, and still remains right here in the 21st century. Booktv is on the campus of California State University at chico