History of Pioneer Week & Pioneer Days at Chico State

Also see:

• Tau Gamma Theta Alumni Association
• History of Pioneer Week
• Pioneer Days Photos

Jim's Home Page

Pioneer Week: From Senior Day to week long festival

Pioneer Week Gazette May 1980 (published by Graphic Fox)

Pioneer Days, Chico State University’s Old West extravaganza, has gone through some changes in its 70 year history evolving from a single Senior Day when the college was still the Chico Normal School into a weeklong festival.

The Pioneer Days saga began in 1915 with Senior Day, which was held each May to show high school seniors the teachers col­lege campus.

Senior Day offered students lunch, musical entertainment, a tour of the college grounds and a speech by the institution’s president.

The event was discontinued during World War I, but its return in 1920 was hailed as a success because 275 students participated.

By 1925, the event had added a touch of the western influence, when students J.W. “Bill” Hamilton and Payne Euland formed a Whiskerino club. The all male social group decided to dress in Old West clothes and grow beards for a few days.

That idea caught on like a prairie fire, and club members prevailed on the campus presi­dent to combine Senior Day with a Wiskerino Day.

Whiskers were mandatory for the occasion. Those without them were jokingly hauled off by classmates. A few landed in Big Chico Creek.

But by 1927, the day fell out of favor with townspeople, who were outraged by “disgraceful costumes and random shooting.”

Following the public outcry, the event was slated to be canceled the next year, but₁ students resurrected the celebration anyway with a different name, Nepenthe Day, which means “the drink of the gods.”

The subterfuge, and the new name, didn’t go over well with the town populace, who complained the students were doing more drinking than pioneering.

In 1929, Pioneer Day was offi­cially established, along with many of its traditions, including the parade and the Sheriff and Little Nell selection. The first couple to be selected was Har­old Spencer end Cecille Dubrow.

During the 1930s, the parade became a major feature of the day and musical comedies were a part of the program.

It was during the 1940s that Little Nell became the victim of repeated ‘kidnapping’ by rival organizations.

By 1947, the event was ex­panded and officially was called Pioneer Week. Students began wearing costumes on the Monday of the celebration and stump speeches for Sheriff and Little Nell speeches evolved into skits and vaudeville like presentations later dubbed “Presents.”

It was around that time that what is now known as quad projects began. It was then called the Ghost Town Carnival.

In 1952, the week include a rodeo for the first time, which was known as the Wild West Show.

By this time, sororities and fraternities began wearing iden­tical costumes as part of their campaigns for Sheriff and Little Nell.

Approximately 30 different campus organizations participated in the 1985 chapter of Pioneer Days, which was  billed as “70 Years of Achievement.”

To Bring back the days of ’49 and the days when our ancestors crossed the plains; to make the college an open house that day for visiting seniors from near by schools: and to afford an opportunity for the students to have ex­perience in organizing pro­grams and carrying out traditions.

The following year, 1931, found Pioneer Day proclaimed as the “outstanding activity of the year.’ No doubt it was and has continued to be each year since then. Nineteen thirty one saw the addition of the frosh­soph tug-o-war over Big Chico Creek. which had become ‘traditional” in 1931. Indeed this interclass struggle was an an­nual event until at least 1953.

By 1938, western costumes were worn from Thursday afternoon through Saturday; the Delta Psi Delta Hangtown Dance (Friday) had become an annual event, and one or two assemblies and dances were held during the week preced­ing Pioneer Day “to get people in the spirit.” During these years, it was mandatory, with violators subject to a kangaroo court trial, for all students to wear western outfits and all males to grow what whiskers they could. Further, Little Nell and Sheriff elections were held a advance of Pioneer

Day, probably so they could rehearse the Saturday morning “melodrama” which became traditional in the 1930s. The melodrama featured the clas­sic story of the heroine (Little Nell) in grave danger of harm at the hands of the villain, rescued just in time by the hero (Sheriff).

The major attraction of Pioneer Day in the 1930s was the parade, with up to 40,000 spectators turning out to watch. The number of spectators has rarely exceeded the large crowds of the 1930s, although the number of parade entries has increased. The 1930’s en­tries went up to 30 or 35, in­cluding faculty entries, but by 1967 this number had risen to 170.             

The war years did not stop, or even slow down the expan­sion of Pioneer Day, despite rationing and the decline in the male population. By 1941, stump speeches which ex­panded into skits or presenta­tions of candidates, were traditional for Little Nell and Sheriff candidates. The election was still held a month in ad­vance of Pioneer Day as the melodrama continued to launch the morning activities. Also, in 1941, the Sheriff ap­pointed an all male posse and a group of Girl Rangers to en­force the beard and costume law on all students. This year, too, Little Nell was kidnapped for the first, time, which became a tradition that lasted until the 1960s.

1942 saw the death of the student written and produced musical. It was replaced by a student variety show. By the early 1940s Pioneer Day and its activities, stretching over a longer period of time, had become quite rowdy with much drinking and horseplay. A 1941 editorial in the Wildcat cautioned students about the Rob Newell “noise and disruption” at many of the activities. The editor warned students that unless they controlled them­selves and attended class reg­ularly, future Pioneer Day cele­brations could be cancelled. By the 1940s, Pioneer Day was taking up much student time with a week of campaigning a month in advance for Little Nell and Sheriff, plus the long preparation time put into floats for the parade and  various “pre-Pioneer Day” activities held the week preceding Pioneer Day. This “bigger and better’’ celebration rocked through the war years un­daunted, except for the parade which became a victim of rationing in 1943 and ‘44.