Oroville (Oro, Spanish for "Gold" and Ville, French for "town") is a city in and the county seat of Butte County of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, Oroville had a population of 20,042. After the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed much of the town of Paradise, Oroville's population increased as many people who lost their homes moved there.
Oroville is considered the gateway to Lake Oroville and Feather River recreational areas. The Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California is headquartered in Oroville.
Oroville is adjacent to State Route 70 and in close proximity to State Route 99, which connects Butte County with Interstate 5. The city of Chico is about northwest of the city, and the state capital, Sacramento, around to the south.
Oroville's nickname is the "City of Gold", which is essentially the Spanish name of the city in English. The National Arbor Day Foundation has declared Oroville a Tree City USA for 41 years.
History Oroville is on the banks of the Feather River, which flows from the Sierra Nevada onto the flat floor of the California Central Valley. During the California Gold Rush, it was created as the Feather River's head of navigation to serve miners. The original inhabitants of Oroville were the Konkow subdivision of Maidu people. In their native language, the Oroville area is ʔópamtani.Konkow Maidu Language Resource - Oroville
The town was originally named "Ophir City", but was renamed Oroville when the first post office opened in 1854 (oro is Spanish for "gold"). The City of Oroville was incorporated on January 3, 1906.
Gold was found at Bidwell Bar, one of California's first gold-mining sites, bringing thousands of prospectors to the Oroville area. Now inundated by the waters of enormous Lake Oroville, which was filled in 1968, Bidwell Bar is memorialized by the Bidwell Bar Bridge, an original remnant of the area and the first suspension bridge in California (California Historical Landmark #314). The Western Pacific Railroad built the all-weather Feather River Canyon route across the Sierra Nevada in the early 20th century, earning it the moniker "The Feather River Route". The California Zephyr made frequent stops at Oroville station during its 20-year existence. This was included on the Union Pacific Railroad's Feather River Canyon Subdivision in 1983. State Route 70, a significant thoroughfare, runs almost parallel to the train line that winds through the canyon.
The Chinese Temple (CHL No. 770 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places) was built in 1863 to cater to the biggest Chinese colony north of Sacramento. Chinese laborers established the Temple as a place of worship for followers of Chinese folk religion and the three major Chinese religions: Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. It has a large collection of antiques as well as a garden.
The olive-canning industry was founded in Oroville by Freda Ehmann, credited as the "mother of the California ripe olive industry". She built a large cannery in Oroville and by 1900 was the president of the world's largest canned olive factory. Ehmann was a believer in women's suffrage and a friend of Susan B. Anthony.Vicki L. Ruiz. Cannery Women, Cannery Lives. University of New Mexico Press, 1987, pp. 23–24.
Ishi, Oroville's most famous resident, was the last of the Yahi people and is considered the last "Stone Age" Indian to come out of the wilderness and into Western civilization. When he appeared out of the hills in East Oroville in 1911, he was immediately thrust into the national spotlight. The Visitor Center at Lake Oroville has a thorough exhibit and documentary film on Ishi and his life in society.
Archaeological finds place the northwestern border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Oroville area.
1881 lynching On August 7, 1881, pioneer Jack Crum was allegedly stomped to death by local bully Tom Noacks in Chico, California. The young Noacks was feared by the locals of Butte County, not only because of his size and strength, but allegedly because he was mentally unbalanced and enjoyed punching oxen in the head.
Noacks was arrested and jailed in the Chico jail. Once word got out that the old pioneer had been murdered, the authorities moved Noacks to the Butte County county jail in Oroville for his safety. Crum's friends, knowing that Noacks was in the county jail, made their way to Oroville with rope in hand. Knocking on the jail door, the men told the jailer that they had a prisoner from the town of Biggs, California. Once inside the jail, they overpowered the jailer and dragged Noacks from his cell. They took Noacks to Crum's former farm and hanged him from an old cottonwood tree. Nobody was ever prosecuted for the lynching.
Hate groups Hate groups began appearing in Oroville media stories beginning in 1976 with a neo-Nazi husband and wife couple killed in a shootout. In 1980, members of the American Nazi Party moved to Oroville from Tracy, California, to re-organize as Chico Area National Socialists. In September 1982, 17-year-old Joseph Hoover was murdered by his Nazi colleagues after he told police he helped spread anti-Black hate literature at Oroville High School. One thousand people marched in Oroville in protest of Nazi and Ku Klux Klan activity on December 11, 1982."Demonstration march against racism, Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazism in Oroville, Calif., 1982 " . Los Angeles Times photograph collection at UCLA. Local Nazi leader Perry "Red" Warthan was convicted of Hoover's murder and sentenced to 27 years, and two more male high school–age Nazi recruits were convicted as accessories to murder. In 2016, an Oroville man was found spreading Nazi hate messages in Sacramento. In January 2004, a white power publication was distributed in the Kelly Ridge area east of Oroville.
Oroville Dam crisis
On February 7, 2017, after heavy rains, a defect formed in a spillway of Oroville Dam. For the first time since its construction, the secondary spillway was overtopped on February 11. Shortly after being put into service, this structure began to show signs of being undermined, raising fears of catastrophic failure. Owing to their inability to predict the continued safety of this spillway, the Butte County Sheriff ordered evacuations of downstream residents from Butte, Sutter, and Yuba counties.
COVID-19 In November 2021, citing alleged federal and state overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oroville city council passed a resolution declaring the city as its own "Constitutional Republic" and refused to enforce federal orders that it said violated its citizens' rights.
The resolution to declare the town a constitutional republic was an attempt to limit state and federal restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in California. One rural law expert stated that the designation was unclear and would not operate to shield the city from following state and federal laws.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a land area of .
Oroville is situated at the head of navigation on the Feather River. The Yuba River flows into the Feather River near Marysville and these flow together to the Sacramento River. Geologically, Oroville is situated at the meeting place of three provinces: the Central Valley alluvial plain to the west, the crystalline Sierra Nevada to the southeast and the volcanic Cascade Mountains to the north. It has a Mediterranean climate.
Oroville sits on the eastern rim of the Great Valley, defined today by the floodplains of the Sacramento River and its tributaries. Around Oroville these sediments are dominated by thick fans of Feather River sediments, but just east of this there is a thin, north-south band of late Cretaceous sediments. These sit atop the Sierran basement, which beneath eastern Oroville comprises greenschist-facies metavolcanic rocks of Jurassic age, giving way to granites of the Sierra batholith to the east. These are manifestations of a vigorous island arc sequence, built out over an east-dipping subduction zone of mid-to-late Mesozoic age. The gold veins lace this ancient arc, remobilized by Mesozoic shearing and intrusions of igneous rock. The crystalline foothills are locally overlain by a Cenozoic sequence of Eocene clean beach sands overlain by Neogene volcanics, including the Diamond Head-like profile of "Table Mountain".
Climate According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Oroville has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps.
According to US climate data, on the average Oroville receives of precipitation per year, which is about 20% less than the national average, but somewhat higher than the average California rainfall total.Climate Oroville – California , U.S. Climate Data. Retrieved on February 13, 2017.Oroville, California Average Rainfall . Retrieved on February 13, 2017.
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Oroville had a population of 20,042. The population density was . The median age was 34.7 years. 25.7% of residents were under the age of 18 and 15.4% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 98.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 97.4 males age 18 and over.
The census reported that 95.1% of the population lived in households, 1.6% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 3.3% were institutionalized. 99.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 1.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 7,161 households, of which 35.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 33.1% were married-couple households, 10.9% were cohabiting couple households, 20.4% had a male householder with no spouse or partner present, and 35.6% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66, and there were 4,488 families (62.7% of all households).
There were 7,705 housing units at an average density of . Of these, 7,161 (92.9%) were occupied and 544 (7.1%) were vacant. Of occupied units, 44.2% were owner-occupied and 55.8% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.9%, and the rental vacancy rate was 4.5%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 12,608 62.9% Black or African American 749 3.7% American Indian and Alaska Native 698 3.5% Asian 1,956 9.8% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 58 0.3% Some other race 1,334 6.7% Two or more races 2,639 13.2% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 3,267 16.3%
2023 ACS estimates In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that 8.4% of the population were foreign-born. Of all people aged 5 or older, 82.1% spoke only English at home, 8.4% spoke Spanish, 1.2% spoke other Indo-European languages, 7.8% spoke Asian or Pacific Islander languages, and 0.5% spoke other languages. Of those aged 25 or older, 83.0% were high school graduates and 13.0% had a bachelor's degree.
The median household income in 2023 was $51,893, and the per capita income was $25,124. About 13.1% of families and 21.8% of the population were below the poverty line.
2010 census
As of the 2010 United States census, Oroville had a population of 15,546. The racial makeup was 11,686 (75.2%) White, 453 (2.9%) African American, 573 (3.7%) Native American, 1,238 (8.0%) Asian, 56 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 554 (3.6%) from other races, and 986 (6.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,945 persons (12.5%).
The Census reported that 14,662 people (94.3% of the population) lived in households, 72 (0.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 812 (5.2%) were institutionalized.