Bidwell Mansion. By © Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

As historic small Northern California towns with state universities, Humboldt and Chico have always been twins of a sort.

Today comes the news that the Bidwell Mansion — a lovely old building that serves as a centerpiece of the town, and a California State Historic Park — burned to the ground early this morning.

The mansion had been undergoing renovations in the last year. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

It’s a pretty devastating loss for Chico. Imagine if we lost the Carson Mansion — it would be like that, but maybe even worse, given how much Chico loved the thing. And it was public property.

Here’s a story from the Chico Enterprise-Record. National news is starting to pick up on it.

Anyway: Really sad.

After the fire. By Frank Schulenburg - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link