Operation Chico facts for kids
Operation Chico was a practice drill held on December 6-7, 1958. It was a Civil Defense exercise, which means it helped protect regular people during emergencies. The drill involved about 500 families from Solano County, California moving to the city of Chico, California. They stayed there overnight.
The main goal of Operation Chico was to test how well people could be protected from atomic bomb fallout and other big disasters. Atomic bomb fallout is dangerous dust that spreads after a nuclear explosion.
The plan aimed to test several things. It checked if a special escape route from Solano County (not including Vallejo, California) worked. It also tested how to manage a large group of people leaving their homes. The drill practiced how to register people and assign them to billets, which are temporary places to stay. They also tested how to feed many people at once. Finally, it checked plans for "continuity of government". This means making sure local governments could still work even if their area was evacuated.
An emergency reception base was set up at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico. The families were registered there. Then, they were assigned to stay with private families for one night. This was the first time in the United States that people were moved away from their homes overnight for such a drill. The evacuation was planned for the anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
Top officials from national and state civil defense watched the operation. They said it was a complete success. Because of this, Chico was later named the temporary capital of California. This meant if Sacramento, California ever needed to be evacuated, Chico would serve as the capital.
Was the Drill Realistic?
Carl E. Hein was a history professor at what is now California State University, Chico. He paid for an advertisement called "A Test of What." In his ad, he questioned how realistic the operation was.
He pointed out that there was no panic during the drill. This made the "successful" evacuation seem more like a parade. He argued that a real evacuation after a nuclear bomb attack would be very different.
Professor Hein believed that highways would quickly become blocked with traffic. This is called a bottleneck. He also thought there would be widespread panic. He said that practicing drills like Operation Chico might make people think they were safe from nuclear disaster, but it could hide the real dangers.
