Chico Cemetery

Chico Cemetery is a cemetery with an on-site crematory in Chico, California, located in the neighborhood known locally as the Avenues, historically platted as Chico Vecino by city founder John Bidwell in 1887. The cemetery provides burial services, cremation services, funeral and memorial services, pre-need cemetery property, veterans services including military honors, and ash scattering assistance.

Chico Cemetery was established in 1852, with the first recorded burial that year of Amos Fry, an associate of John Bidwell. Much of the original land was donated by Bidwell, who founded the city of Chico. Cemetery plots became available for public purchase in 1868. The cemetery originally operated as the Chico Cemetery Association; the Brusie family acquired the association in 1994.

The property is recognized on the City of Chico Historic Resources Inventory as a landmark contributing to the architectural and cultural character of the Avenues community. Pre-1900 written records were destroyed in a fire; information from that period is reconstructed from surviving gravestones, family records, and secondary historical research.

Notable interments include John Bidwell (1819–1900) and Annie Bidwell (1839–1918), founders of the city of Chico, buried together on Founder's Row beneath a monument fashioned from a large natural boulder; Major Ted W. Lawson (1917–1964), a decorated pilot who participated in the 1942 Doolittle Raid over Tokyo and authored the wartime memoir Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, entombed in the outdoor mausoleum wall; and Ira Weatherly, one of three prospectors credited with discovering the Dogtown Nugget in 1859, the largest gold nugget ever found in California at 54 pounds.

The grounds include an on-site crematory, multiple mausoleums, cremation gardens and niches, family and private cemetery lots, build-to-suit cemetery property, a veterans cemetery section, and a Catholic cemetery section. The Garden of Reflection, located near the front gate, is a designated cremation area featuring a central water fountain with ambient music, cremation benches, garden niches, and memorial pedestals. The Garden of Trinity, opened in 2023, includes columbarium niche walls, display vaults, above-ground granite monument placements, and traditional casket burial zones. Spanish-language services are available.

Chico Cemetery does not offer pet cremation or pet burial. No chapel or indoor service room is available on the grounds.