If you were traveling on the stagecoach from Sacramento to Shasta City in 1862, and wanted to stop over in Chico, where would you stay? How about here?

Well, not in 1862. The Chico Hotel burned down more than once, so the above photo from 1900 does not show the hotel as it stood in 1862 or 1873.

Up until 1860, the only option for accommodation was Bidwell’s adobe hotel/tavern/ranch headquarters on the north side of Chico Creek. But with a new town on the south side with houses, shops, and services, hotel rooms were soon available. In 1862 the first hotel, the Chico Hotel, was opened.

Ira Wetherbee had made his fortune with a truly extraordinary find. In 1859, at a mine in Magalia which he co-owned, a 54-pound nugget was washed out of the hillside. The “Dogtown Nugget” was sold in San Francisco for $10,690. Wetherbee gave up mining and invested in the Chico Hotel. He became one of the best-known men in Chico, notable for his friendliness and generosity. He advertised his hotel as “the only first-class hotel in Northern California.”

The Junction, where today Broadway and Main intersect with Park Avenue, Humboldt Avenue, and 8th and 9th Streets, was the center of transportation and commerce in Chico in the 19th century. That’s where you went to find livery stables, blacksmiths, saloons, and more hotels, like the Union House on Main.

Two other choices were the Junction Hotel or the Railroad House at the depot.

“Few towns in the Sacramento Valley can make a better showing!”