My name is John Thorpe and I am a born and raised Chico native, and I attended Chico High School and that’s where my interest into leadership began. I was very involved with a national leadership organization all four years of high school and that is what really developed me into the person I am today. This development through high school led me to choose Public Administration as my major at Chico State. I have always done well serving others and I thought that this major because I can use it to serve my community for a career. Among other things I enjoy I have always been an outdoorsman, hiking, hunting and fishing have been a staple of my youth. I grew up outside of Chico near Durham, so I may be a little bit more country than others. My passion for everything outdoors is backed by my work ethic, for as long as I can remember I have worked outside, whether it was yard work as a young elementary kid or orchard work through high school, I have always found a way working with my hands and have felt that physical work always presents a sense of self gratitude when the job is done. Chico and more broadly, Butte County is a great place to work with your hands a physically earn your money and its community is amazing, that is why I chose to stay local for school instead of moving away to somewhere that is so much more different. It’s not that other towns and cities aren’t as good, it’s that Chico is such a great place to begin with.
The founding father of Chico California is credited to be Mr. John Bidwell, who first came to the area in 1844 to settle onto two land grants which he later purchased for himself. Once he acquired more fortune from gold with other settlers who came into the area for the rush, he bought up more land and began to raise cattle, hogs and sheep. By 1861 John Bidwell began to starts of a new town which he expected to continually develop of the coming years. In 1868 John Bidwell is now a Congressman and began building what is known today as Bidwell Mansion, kept to this day as it was from when it stood in the late 1800’s with minor upgrades and upkeep over the years. From there the development steadily continued to grow and led to the development of what is today known formally as California State University, Chico. https://www.downtownchico.com/history-timeline.htm
The status of Chico today shows in the most recent government census that Chico had a population of a little over 86,400 as of 2010, but it was estimated in July of 2016 that Chico now contains 91,500 people which is a six percent increase over the past six years. 14.5% of all households in Chico speak languages other than English at home, and the median household income for Chico is $42,342. http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
Something unique about Chico is the municipal park formally known as Bidwell Park. First established by the City founder’s Wife, Annie Bidwell, who donated a majority of the land in 1905, today the park sits on 3,670 acres and is almost 11 miles in length stretching from the heart of downtown all the way up into the foothills. Bidwell park is a local staple to residents and is the 24th largest city park in the nation.
One of my favorite places in Chico are any place I can hike, swim, fish or hunt at. Some of the best locations that I frequent the most is the uppermost part of Bidwell Park all the way up to Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve, which is great for finding some great little hikes and awesome points to look down onto the city to watch the sun set or to head out and look at the stars without the light pollution from the city. Another spot is Little Chico Creek up Honey Run Road which is fun to raft down when there’s enough water in the summer.