Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California , the city had a population of , in the census , an increase from 86, in the 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. The first known inhabitants of the area now known as Chico—a Spanish word meaning "little" [ 11 ] —were the Mechoopda Maidu Native Americans.
Within the boundaries of modern day Chico, there existed a Maidu village, whose name was recorded as Bah-hahp'-ke , meaning "straight tree". The City of Chico was founded in by John Bidwell , a member of one of the first wagon trains to reach California in Hooker with a company of cavalry and two of infantry, on August 26, By early , it was being referred to as Camp Chico when a post called Camp Bidwell was established in northeast California, later to be Fort Bidwell. Chico was home to a significant Chinese American community when it was first incorporated, but arsonists burned Chico's Chinatown in February , driving Chinese Americans out of town.
Historian W. Other events include the construction and relocation of Route 99E through town in the early s, the founding of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in —what would become one of the top breweries in the nation [ 17 ] —and the establishment of a "Green Line" on the western city limits as protection of agricultural lands.
Chico is at the Sacramento Valley's northeast edge, one of the richest agricultural areas in the world. The Sierra Nevada mountains lie to the east and south, with Chico's city limits venturing several miles into the foothills. To the west, the Sacramento River lies 5 miles 8 km from the city. Chico sits on the Sacramento Valley floor close to the foothills of the Cascade Range to the north and the Sierra Nevada range to the east and south.
