there has been a shift from mineral wealth, taken from the earth in successively more damaging ways, to agricultural wealth, now taken from the earth in successively more damaging ways. agriculture now accounts for more money in a single year than all the gold ever mined in California.

 

when Butte County was formed, Oroville was chosen as the county seat. a gold rush boomtown, Oroville was much larger than the farming community at Rancho Chico. some 150 years later, the relationship between the two towns has changed

Chico has the state university

Oroville has Indian bingo

 

John and Annie Bidwell are still sitting in wicker chairs on the front porch of their mansion

 

a pink stucco monstrosity
like a wedding cake

 

this is where myth and history collide

 
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