Dodge Place, California

Dodge Place is a 160-acre parcel in Butte County, California. It lies at an elevation of 1873 feet (571 m), in the Big Chico Creek canyon. Homesteaded in 1889 by William A. Rexford, the parcel was purchased in 1906 by the Dodge family, who built the home that still stands on the property. The Dodge Place today is owned by the Tichinin family and managed as a private nature preserve. The Dodge Place parcel is surrounded by miles of wild lands managed by BLM, Sierra Pacific Industries, or other large private landowners, including the nearby 4,000+/- acre Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve and the 4,000+/- acre Musty Buck Ridge Reserve.  This area is in the region of the Southern Cascade and Northern Sierra Nevada Mountains sometimes referred to as the Land of Ishi. Ishi's ancestors inhabited this area for generations before the arrival of Europeans. This canyon was fortunate to have avoided the worst of gold mining era disturbance. No big strikes were ever discovered. The goal of the Dodge Place preserve is to improve the understanding and appreciation of the natural environment of this region and to play a small roll in the regeneration of a healthier natural state of the Sierra Nevada & Cascade Mountain Range<nowiki/>s, in particular the small canyon watershed known as the Big Chico Creek Canyon.  The hope is that guests can use their personal experiences and learning at the preserve to advocate for conservation management of all the remaining natural places around the world.