There's something about Chico ...

by Cat Bytes staff

Whatever your perception of Chico State and Chico, you’re probably right. Unless you’re wrong. That’s because, quite simply, there’s something about Chico that makes it a magnet for ratings, rankings and reputations. So here’s a look at some of the fame, infamy and just plain silliness that is heaped on the school by people who a.) are right, or b.) probably should know better. 

      Ø   The Orion: Chico State shows its O-face
   Ø   Let's just call it a social school

      Ø   But it's a nationally ranked university

      Ø   Going, going ... still going

      Ø   Constructing a legacy

      Ø   Shake your bushy tail

      Ø   We're bike friendly
   Ø   Size matters

      Ø   Really, good beer

      Ø   A home for the arts

      Ø   Best place to ... retire?

   Ø   Honey, run!

      Ø   Too tall for small?    

The Orion: Chico State shows its O-face

Chico State has more to brag about than being squirrel-friendly; it has the right to boast for the third consecutive year that it has the best weekly university newspaper in the nation. The Orion recently took home the National Pacemaker award – the top prize for excellence in college journalism – at the Associated Collegiate Press’ 2005 National College Media Convention. This year’s award honored the newspaper for its efforts under the direction of managing editors Kristina Seward and Scott Jason and adviser Dave Waddell. The Orion also earned the National Pacemaker in 2004 and 2003.

To add to the celebration, The Orion also won the first-place trophy in the Best of Show category after submitting the Oct. 19, 2005, edition of the weekly broadsheet newspaper, which featured content entirely produced by Chico State students.

In the mid 1990s, The Orion also won three consecutive Pacemaker awards for a total of nine to the newspaper’s credit (1989, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005). In recognition of this outstanding achievement and for being a finalist for the award 15 times, The Orion was inducted to the National College Media Hall of Fame.

The Orion earned the additional honor this year of being named “Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper” by the Society of Professional Journalists as part of its Mark of Excellence national award series.

The Orion was founded in 1975 and is the laboratory newspaper of Chico State's nationally accredited department of journalism. The print edition is available each Wednesday and the online edition is updated daily.

Let’s just call it a “social school”
Long gone are the days when one could say that Chico State is the No. 1 party school in the United States. And here’s a fun fact about that original ranking: It’s as old as some Chico State first-year students.

It was in 1987 that Playboy magazine first published its list of the top 25 party schools in America. Chico State was ranked No. 1. Although that list wasn’t revisited by the magazine for 15 years, somehow this "scholarly" publication engraved into society's head that Chico State is nothing but a venue for young adults to act like morons while intoxicated. In 2002, Playboy published its second list of the top party schools. Though still on the list, Chico State was no longer on top. The updated party school list from 2002 can be seen at www.playboy.com.  (Keep in mind that you must be over 18 to go to this Web site).

The problem with Playboy's two stabs at ranking is that not much research was done in order to compile the list. The Web site says that for the second ranking roughly 1,500 e-mails and phone calls were made from college students all over demanding that the magazine update its list. The 2002 ranking was compiled from comments gleaned from these e-mails and phone calls.

Given the amount of ink devoted to Chico State’s “bad” reputation, it's hard to know what to believe. 

Typing "party schools" in Google brings up a plethora of links with different party school rankings. Chico State isn't even in the majority of them. At some point The

Princeton Review picked up where Playboy left off and started its own annual school rankings. For the 2005 Princeton survey, some 110,000 students at colleges and universities across the nation were asked about a variety of issues, from social life to academics. Chico State didn’t make the list. Anywhere. Not for “Best College Newspaper,” in spite of The Orion’s impressive collection of national awards. Not for “Happiest Students.” Not for “Best College Town.” And not for “Party Schools.”

—     Chris Montoya

But it is a nationally ranked university
Every year, U.S. News & World Report goes through the exhausting procedure of collecting information on nearly every college in the United States based on several different categories. The schools are then ranked and those rankings are published in the annual “America’s Best Colleges” edition. The categories used to formulate the rankings range from student/faculty ratio to average grade rate.

In the past several years, Chico State has been consistently ranked in the top five for master’s-level public universities in the western United States. According to Chico State, the university was ranked third in 2004, fourth in 2003 and third in 2002. This year’s rankings were released Aug 29, 2005, and Chico State was tied for 31^st overall (with Cal Poly Pomona and Fresno Pacific) for master’s-level universities in the West and tied for fourth (with Cal Poly Pomona) in the same category when private universities were removed from the mix.

This year’s rankings can be found on the U.S. News & World Report’s Web site or in a separate college guidebook.

— Kevin Snyder

Going, going…still going
Chico State’s department of intercollegiate athletics is proud to have the strength and dominance that the Wildcat baseball team showcases each time its players hit the field. Head Coach Lindsay Meggs arrived at Chico State in 1994 and, through disciplined coaching techniques and strong recruiting practices, Wildcat baseball began to tie together the loose ends the team had struggled with in previous seasons.

Chico State’s baseball team stunned fans during its first trip to the Division  II World Series in 1997. After traveling through the winner’s bracket undefeated, the Wildcats knocked off Central Oklahoma in an exciting come-from-behind 13-12 victory. The following season, after capturing their first national title, the ‘Cats fought hard-won, back-to-back championships, but fell short at No. 4 in the nation.

In 1999, the Wildcats were ready to take the national title once again. After sweeping through the first three games of the national series in Alabama, the ’Cats beat Kennesaw State in the fourth game, 11-5.

Chico State is one of the strongest Division II baseball teams in the nation. After conquering two Division II World Series in a span of three years and five regional titles in years after, the Wildcats are thirsty for more. As of the end of the 2005 season, the Wildcats were the No. 6-ranked Division II baseball team in the Nation.

— Ashley Carter

Constructing a legacy
In the Chico State construction management program's trips to Reno, students have hit the jackpot, but not at the casinos. Chico's teams have consistently placed well against Western universities in the annual Associated Schools of Construction competition.

In 2004, teams from Chico won trophies in each of the four divisions: commercial, residential, heavy/civil and design/build, according to a press release from the construction management department.

Chico State's awards in 2004 – including two first-place prizes – came at the largest event since the competition began. More than 500 students on about 90 teams competed. Teams came from 11 other schools, including the University of Southern California, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Arizona State University, according to the press release.

The 2005 competition also was a success for the construction management program. For the first time, the department fielded a team in the National Mechanical Competition. Teams also took second in the commercial portion and third in design/build, according to the department’s Web site. Chico’s teams slipped a bit in 2005 mostly because of changes in types of problems presented, said construction management department chair Tom Heustis on the Web site. But the teams took it as a learning experience and are aiming for first place in 2006.

— Travis Miller

Shake your bushy tail
“I’ve scientifically determined that the optimum campus environment requires at least 1 squirrel per 28.3 graduate students,” wrote Jon Gottshall on his Web page of Campus Squirrel Listings. If this is true, Chico State is in good shape.

Gottshall gives Chico State a rating of three squirrels out of a possible five based on information given to him from field observers Frank and Tara Argain, who said that the campus has a lot of trees, many of which are oak, a very squirrel-friendly tree.

Eight rankings of five squirrels were given, three of which were campuses in Pennsylvania. In California, Stanford received four squirrels and a plus sign. Topping the list is UC Berkeley.

“The absolute best place I’ve found for a squirrel session,” Gottshall wrote.

 Cal State Fullerton received the lowest score of any school listed, a squirrel minus.

 “On very rare occasions you MIGHT see a squirrel here,” Gottshall wrote. “There was a colony of California Ground Squirrels near the humanities building, until they POISONED THEM ALL.”

— Tim Gilmour

We’re bike friendly
Chico has everything that a bike lover needs. If you want a good climb, just head east where you will not only find the rolling hills of Forest Ranch and Paradise but if you get past them you will find yourself at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

If you want a long, flat ride, the north valley has miles of back roads from Sacramento to Redding and beyond.

But the city also has made some effort to make its streets equally bike-friendly.

This makes Chico the greatest place for bicyclists to live and ride, according to Bicycling magazine’s first-ever ranking of America’s best bike towns.

Chico beat out Durango, Colo., and Eugene, Ore., for the top slot, announced in the magazine’s August 1997 issue. The rankings were based on terrains, races, clubs, shops, bike routes, parking, racks on buses, housing costs and job opportunities.

Bicyclists can ride through Bidwell Park for great mountain biking, along with road riding that's mostly car-free, according to the article. Other trails lead to Paradise and Mt. Lassen, which is a 60-mile ride. A cycling columnist living in Chico said people can live car-free and “still be taken seriously.”

Although the Bicycling ranking is now old enough that copies of the article need to be read on microfiche, Chico continues to draw the attention of the magazine. The Chico Wildflower Century, a 100-mile ride that has begun and ended in the city each spring since 1981, is consistently ranked in Bicycling’s top 10 centuries. Of course, some of this must be considered anecdotal, as a search of the Bicycling Web site archives finds no references to Chico at all.

Evidence of Chico’s passion for bicycling that is easier to verify comes from the League of American Bicyclists, which honored Chico with its bronze-level “Bicycle Friendly Community” designation. This followed a detailed audit of the city’s efforts to provide safe accommodation and facilities for bicyclists and to encourage residents to bike for transportation and recreation.
The award is given to communities who encourage their citizens to ride bikes and make sure that the roads, bike paths and trails are clean and accessible for riders. Chico is one of 44 cities awarded the “Bicycle Friendly Community” designation out of 98 communities applying for the honor, according to the League of American Bicyclists’ Web site.

— Scott Jason & Grant Sanregret

Size matters
Chico’s Bidwell Park is no doubt large – a whopping 3,670 acres that stretches 11 miles. But the question of where exactly this ranks Bidwell as far as the being largest park in the United States is difficult to pin down.

The Chico State Web site says that Bidwell is the third largest park in the United States.

A list on the Friends of Bidwell Park Web site has Bidwell as the ninth largest park, but this is not sourced and it is not mentioned if it is meant to be a complete list.

The National Recreation and Park Association’s list of largest urban parks knocks Bidwell all the way down to 16.

What is certain is that any claim that lists Bidwell behind New York City's Central Park in terms of sheer size should be taken as false – Central Park is only 840 acres, less than 1/4 the size of Bidwell.

— Robert LaHue

Really, good beer
In 1979, Ken Grossman began building what would become the premier craft brewery in the United States – Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. In November of 1980, Grossman brewed the first Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the company's most popular beer and the one that would come to embody Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.

In its existence, Sierra Nevada has won numerous prestigious awards. In 2005, Sierra Nevada won Mid-Sized Brewing Company of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival. However, Sierra Nevada owes that award to the numerous beers it brews. Below are some of the awards the beers have received:

• Pale Ale: Gold medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival for American Pale Ale in 1993-1995, Classic English Pale Ale in 1992, and Pale Ale in
1987, 1989,1990

• Porter: First place at the California Brewers Festival in 2000, and at the Colorado State Fair in 1996

• Wheat: Silver medal American Wheat winner at the California State Fair in 2000.

• Stout: Gold medal Stout, Sweet & Foreign winner at the California State Fair in 2000.

• Summerfest: Gold medal European Light Lagers winner at the California State Fair in 1999

• Bigfoot: Gold medal winner at the California State Fair in 1997 and 2000, the Great Alaska Beer & Barleywine Festival in 1998 and at the Great American Beer Festival 1987, 1988, 1992 and 1995.

• Celebration Ale: Gold medal winner in 1994 at the United States Beer Tasting Championship. Also won first place in 1996 at the Chicago Beer Society fall beer tasting.

The brewery at 1075 East 20th St. is also home to the popular Sierra Nevada Taproom and Restaurant, and a 350-seat live music venue, the Big Room. Sierra Nevada has grown into a successful business – one that Chicoans can be proud to call Chico's own. 

— Jorge Barrientos

A home for the arts
When it comes to Chico, its jaw-dropping art scene isn’t quite the first thing that comes to mind. But it should be, according to John Villani, whose book, “The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America: A Guide to Galleries, Museums, Festivals, Lodging and Dining” (fourth edition, 2005), ranked Chico 10th based on other towns of its size.

Chico is ranked among Ashland, Ore., Carmel and Mendocino based on each town’s general location, quality of life, available cultural activities, the economic impact of the arts on each town, an active local arts agency, galleries, art festivals and the opinion of artists within each community, according to The Midwest Book Review.

The San Francisco Chronicle has pointed to Villani as something of a hero to Northern California. And it makes sense; among the many rankings that Chico possesses, being ranked for a thriving art community is quite flattering.

This ranking should come as no surprise to anyone who takes a stroll through downtown Chico. As the Chico Art Web page notes, “public art is well woven into the tapestry of Chico.” Where else can you find a parking garage that features a tile mosaic and “art benches” peppering the sidewalks? And let’s not forget the 12-foot hands by Donna Billick at the Municipal Center Building on Fourth Street and the numerous murals, including giant portraits of John and Annie Bidwell, the Fab Four, an astronaut, and trompe l’oeil of imaginary windows that “reflect” blue sky and vanished buildings.

Villani’s book has no doubt created a buzz about Chico (but make sure you get the fourth edition from 2005, as Chico isn’t listed in the previous books). Boston’s NPR News Source has an audio interview with Villani. The Orion and USA Today also covered the book’s release. In its pages, Villani describes Chico as “home to a number of highly skilled artists, dancers, actors and musicians” and “also home to Chico State (California State University at Chico), known for its performing arts.”

— Lauren St. Pierre

Best place to… retire?
There is a claim out there that Chico was once named by Forbes as the magazine’s No. 1 pick for "Best Places in America" in 2000. It is certain that Chico did not have that particular ranking bestowed upon it and whether the community was even ranked in the survey is lost in the pay archives of cyberspace. It is verifiable, however, that Chico was chosen by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance as one of the “Great Places to Retire” in 1998.

Kiplinger’s had a list of criteria necessary to make the selections such as “a reasonable cost of living, easy-to-take taxes, a wide range of home prices, little crime, good medical care,” as well as “art galleries; theater and musical performances; a nearby airport; volunteer opportunities; and little exposure to the white stuff you hate to shovel,” according to a survey published in the June 1998 issue. “And they had to have amenities such as cappuccino and good pizza.”

In 2002, Chico was ranked the eighth fastest-growing housing market in the United States by Forbes magazine, with a five-year home appreciation rate that approached 40 percent. By 2005, however, Chico is ranked in a CNN/Money survey as the most over-priced housing market in the nation, with homes noted as selling for 43 percent more than their fair value.

More recently, Chico ranked 104 out of 168 small metropolitan areas in Forbes’ 2005 list of “Best Places for Business and Careers.”

— Carli Thorkelson

Honey, run!
Most people assume that there are only covered bridges in far off places with foreign sounding names like New Hampshire. Well most people are wrong.

California boasts some of the longest, oldest and most historically interesting covered bridges in the country. Chico leads the pack with its Honey Run Bridge, built in 1894. Hyped as the only tri-span bridge, it has three distinct rooflines and is the only one of its type still standing in the country, according to the California Division of Tourism. (http://www.magazineusa.com/states/ca/i_s_covered_bridges.asp)

The bridge was to be destroyed after a truck fell through part of it in 1965, but the community rallied together at a pancake breakfast and raised $7,000 to renovate the landmark. Now every year the Honey Run Bridge Association holds a pancake breakfast to pay for the upkeep of this wonder.

This bridge is amazing to look at and a little scary to walk across. You can actually taste the history that is associated with this bridge, if you are so inclined. Of the many stories about how Honey Run Bridge got its name the most interesting is not that there was a beehive located nearby. Actually the story is that a couple who was going out for a picnic came upon a bear and the man was heard yelling “Run, Honey. Run!” according to magazineusa.com.

The bridge is located five miles east of Chico via the Skyway and a left turn onto Honey Run Road.

— Jonathan Glen

Too tall for small?
Many sources claim that the Sutter Buttes in nearby Sutter County are the smallest mountain range in the world. Most of the sources are of the “please visit our town” ilk, like this Sutter County at a glance page. A Google search for "Sutter Buttes smallest mountain range" produces plenty of anecdotal evidence, but nothing from an authoritative voice.

A little more digging reveals that the Tatras Mountains in Slovakia could be the smallest range in the world. A Google search for "Tatras smallest mountain range" digs up just as many untrustworthy sites proclaiming that the Tatras own the tiny crown.

This California State Parks Web site says that the Sutter Buttes aren't really a mountain range. The Sutter Buttes don't appear on Reference.com's list of mountain ranges. The Guinness World Records Web site doesn’t produce anything from a search of “smallest mountain range.” A page devoted to the Sutter Buttes on the United States Geological Survey Web site doesn’t say anything about being the world’s smallest mountain range either.

— Brian Kennedy

Back to top

_______________________________________________________