Monthly Archives: April 2026

The Chico Hotel — in Verse

Pres Longley came down from Helltown and stayed at the Chico Hotel, perhaps paying his bar tab with the following poem: If you travel to Chico by stage or by rail,By buggy or horseback, you never should failTo stop at … Continue reading

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Another Pres Longley Poem

Poet Pres Longley had an eye for a pretty girl. Here’s a poem he wrote about an encounter on L Street in Sacramento, published in the Sacramento Daily Bee on January 7, 1873. THE GIRL I SAW ON L STREETI … Continue reading

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Philip A. Bell in Chico

Philip A. Bell, born in New York City in 1808, came to California during the Civil War and in 1865 founded The Elevator, a San Francisco newspaper that covered events in the Black Community and advocated for Black suffrage and … Continue reading

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Celebration in Chico

What Juneteenth is to black history today, the celebration of the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was to 19th century black Americans. The amendment prohibited the federal government or any state from denying or abridging a … Continue reading

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A Fond Heart in Helltown is Waiting

April is poetry month, so who better to give us a poem than our own Bard of Butte and Poet of Helltown, Pres Longley. Here is one that was published in the Oroville Mercury on September 17, 1875. “SHE RUNS … Continue reading

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The Death of General John Bidwell

On the morning of April 4, 1900, John Bidwell set out to mark a new road along Big Chico Creek. Driving the wagon was William Conway, one of his oldest Mechoopda employees. Also in the wagon was Florence Blake, a … Continue reading

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