goldfields

Subway Cave, a lava tube near Lassen Volcanic National Park. Nothing to do with the tunnels in this post.

Does every town in California, or the nation, have stories about secret tunnels under the buildings and under the streets? I know Chico does — maybe your town does too.

Stansbury House in Chico

Just last week a fellow I know said he knew the man who used to be the caretaker at Stansbury House. The man’s name was Tom, and Tom took him down into the cellar and showed him the tunnel that the Chinese used to get to Dr. Stansbury. This sounded bogus to me, but I have never been in the basement of the Stansbury House, so how would I know?

I mentioned it to John Gallardo, who has been the caretaker at Stansbury House for many years. He told me that there are no tunnels under Stansbury House and there was never a caretaker named Tom.

And when you think about it: Where would that tunnel go? Dr. Stansbury didn’t live next door to Chinatown, not the old one and not the new one. How many blocks would that tunnel have to run?

My friend Sandy Hill told me that when she was going to Chico High School, she heard stories that John Bidwell had a tunnel from his Mansion to the creek so he could sneak out and go the Indian village.

Guess what? No tunnels running under the lawn at Bidwell Mansion either. At one time the Indian village (or rancheria) was quite close to the mansion, but Annie was upset with the wailings she heard during a two-day funeral, and so in March 1869 (a year after Annie arrived) Bidwell had the rancheria moved a mile away. That would have made for a very long tunnel!

More plausible are the stories of tunnels under the buildings of downtown Chico. In many cities the old buildings have basements, and often these basements were connected, one building to another. That would facilitate moving goods, going from building to building out of the weather, and maybe more clandestine activities.  Basements could be used for opium dens, gambling dens, and speakeasies.

Underground opium den in San Francisco, 1906. Image courtesy of Bancroft Library and Calisphere.

My husband says he saw this kind of tunnel and room arrangement under an old building in downtown Bakersfield many years ago. He was told the room had been a Chinese opium den, and that may well be true.

If anyone has an authentic story about spooky basements and tunnels in Chico, I’d like to hear it. Just don’t tell me about a tunnel that runs under Chico Creek, so that John Bidwell could go to a saloon and get a drink without Annie knowing.

On this date 178 years ago, John Bidwell and most of the rest of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party reached the home of John Marsh near Mount Diablo.  At last they knew for sure that they were in California. The long journey was finished and a new chapter of adventure would begin.

Thursday, 4th. Left the river in good season and departing gradually from its timber came into large marshes of bulrushes. We saw large herds of elk and wild horses grazing upon the plain. . . . Finally we arrived at Marsh’s house, which is built of unburnt bricks, small and has no fireplace — wanting a floor and covered with bulrushes. In fact it was not what I expected to find; a hog was killed for the company. We had nothing else but beef; the latter was used as bread, the former as meat.

After the skimpy rations of the past few months, the men hungered for fat meat, and the pork was welcome, even if it came in a beef and pork “sandwich.” Bidwell might have been hoping for bread too. He liked bread and missed it. But he had no complaints about the food Marsh gave them that first night.

John Marsh in 1852

Considering the glowing reports of California that Marsh had sent back east, Bidwell was surprised at the primitive conditions he was living in. A small adobe house with a dirt floor and no fireplace -– hardly what Bidwell had envisioned. He was accustomed to cooking over a fireplace indoors, but in California the cooking was generally done outside in the courtyard.

Dr. Marsh welcomed the company. “He seemed delighted to see us and was very communicative and even enthusiastic.” He had known a few of the men in the company back in Missouri. Now, their journey ended, they sat around telling their stories and exchanging news.

The long, tough journey was over, but the adventure would continue. John Bidwell was now embarking on a new life, the life of a Californian. He would spend the next 59 years in his new home state.

In the early years of California statehood, the Democratic Party dominated state politics. Often referred to as “The Democracy,” it arose out of Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. For a while, after the demise of the Federalists, this was the only party around, but it split in 1828 over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe.

Andrew Jackson in 1824

Andrew Jackson was the first Democratic president. Under Jackson’s leadership, the party favored a decentralized government, individual liberty, and agrarian values. It was the choice of the small farmer and the artisan, the “common man,” and so was naturally the political party for a farmer’s son like John Bidwell.

The opposition party was the Whigs, the party of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Named after the Whig Party in Britain, which opposed absolute monarchy, the American Whigs opposed the man they called “King Andrew.” They favored a stronger national government, a national bank, and protective tariffs. It appealed to landowners, merchants, and the urban middle class.

The men who came to California were overwhelmingly Democrats. From the beginning of state government, the Democratic Party held the reins. But the national struggle over slavery would soon lead to rifts in the party.

Enter William M. Gwin, a pro-slavery Southerner with a copy of the Iowa constitution in his pocket and a eye on the U.S. Senate.

John Bidwell was not only an American pioneer on the California Trail, he was California’s foremost pioneer in agriculture. Agriculture was Bidwell’s consuming passion and lifelong pursuit. After discovering gold at Bidwell Bar, he was able to purchase Rancho del Arroyo Chico, a 22,000-acre Mexican land grant. The development of his ranch as an agricultural showcase was his enduring mission.

In the early days he concentrated on raising and improving livestock, and on growing grain. He erected the first grist-mill in what is now Butte County. He was so successful in wheat production that in 1878 at the International Exposition in Paris, he was awarded a gold medal for the finest wheat in the world.

But Bidwell saw the Sacramento Valley’s potential for a much greater variety of crops. He planted the first peach trees, raised the first raisin grapes, and produced the first olive oil in Butte County.

He was a tireless promoter of California agriculture. He joined the California State Agricultural Society in 1858 and in 1867 was elected the first president of the Butte County Agricultural Association. In 1872 he was elected the president of the State Farmers’ Union, a precursor of the Grange.

In his annual addresses to the State Agricultural Society, he promoted diversity in California agriculture.

In a speech in 1860 he stated:

There is no reason why we cannot supply ourselves with the thousands of barrels, boxes, hogsheads, and casks, of dried apples, peaches, nuts, raisins, and other fruits which are constantly imported hither. It will not do to say that we cannot raise apples in California, for it is too well known that our mountains, the country along our extended sea coast, and numerous intermediate valleys, produce in abundance the finest apples in the world. Of peaches and pears it would be vain to attempt description that would be credited abroad—to be appreciated they must be seen. No country can equal much less surpass them. Almonds grow to perfection here, and can be raised almost as easily as peaches and in quantities to supply all the markets on the Pacific Ocean. We can also grow the Persian Walnut, and without doubt the Filbert also.

In 1891 he was still promoting fruit production in California:

I think this state is to be largely a fruit garden. I don’t think it is to be used continuously for the production of grain. Of course we will always produce cereals, but the capabilities of California are in the direction of fruit raising. It is capable of being made one grand fruit orchard. In order to do that, two things have to be done, some portions of the country must be drained and other portions irrigated, but this will have to be done systematically to be successful.

Bidwell’s vision for California was far-reaching.

• He promoted irrigation and envisioned a statewide network of canals, reservoirs, and dams to bring water to valley farms.
• He led the farmers’ fight against hydraulic mining, an industry that filled rivers and covered fields with mud, gravel, and debris.
• He tested new machinery and shared his findings.
• He imported specialty plants and experimented with new crops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sent seeds from all over the world to him, which he planted, keeping careful records of the results.
• He donated land for an experimental forestry station.

The list of his accomplishments in agriculture go on and on.

Throughout the second half of the 19th century, Rancho Chico was known as the finest and best-managed farm in California. In 1857, less than ten years after John Bidwell acquired Rancho Chico, a reporter from the California Farmer visited it and stated:

. . . this splendid Ranch, which embraces an area of five leagues of the best land in California; is . . . owned, cultivated and enjoyed by one of the best of men—a man who labors to encourage the working classes, and build up our glorious State.

I am working on a presentation for an OLLI class on Local History. (OLLI is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute — basically retirees teaching other retirees whatever they feel like teaching. It’s a fun and easy way to keep your brain ticking.) I have done other presentations in this class over the last couple of years. So far, they have let me come back.

I decided to talk about John Bidwell in California politics this time. It’s a topic that has always interested me, although I do not have a background in political science. But I thought it might be entertaining to get away from the turmoils of the present day and see what they were up to way back when.

My opening question will be “With what political party did John Bidwell affiliate?” He was active in politics, so what party did he belong to?

It all depends on which decade you are asking about. That is what makes it interesting, and what makes Bidwell a portrait of the changing trends in California politics.

1840–1860: “I was in those years an incorrigible Democrat.”

1860–mid-1870s: Republican or Union Party

1875–mid-1880s: People’s Independent Party (Anti-Monopolist)

1885-1900: Prohibition Party

That looks simple, if changeable, but it gets more complicated the deeper you dig. Come with me on a ride through the quickly changing landscape of 19th-century politics.