 During his 1952 Vice Presidential campaign, Richard Nixon was talking on the pay phone at the station when he got the news from the campaign headquarters that he would have to respond to the Checkers issue with the 'Checkers speech'.Passenger rail service to Chico ceased in 1957, but was reactivated when Amtrak rerouted the "Coast Starlight" to its current alignment in 1982.The city and the Chamber of Commerce saved the current structure from demolition through an agreement with the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1987.