Butte County California

Butte County. Organized in 1850. Bounded on the northwest by Tehama, northeast by Plumas, southeast by Yuba, south by Sutter and west by Colusa. Area, 1,458 square miles. Assessed valuation of property for 1874, $9,062,619. County seat, Oroville. Principal towns: Bangor, Bidwell's Bar, Bigg's Station, Cherokee, Chico, Forbestown, Inskip, Magalia, Thompson's Flat, Wyandotte, Nord, Gridiey's Station and Lovelock.

The county is composed of both mountain and Valley land, in nearly equal proportions; the mines and forests of the Sierra, and the agricultural lands of the plain, constitute its resources. The soil of the valley is very fertile, producing an average of 23¼ bushels of wheat per acre. Fruit is grown in great perfection, oranges ripening at Bidwell's Bar, which is in latitude 39 deg. 51 min., and at an elevation of about 1,000 feet above the ocean. This may be taken as a measure of the horticultural capacity of the section, and of the climate of the Sacramento Valley, and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Coal, or a light lignite, is found in Table Mountain, near Oroville. Butte was one of the earliest mining counties, but that interest was allowed to decline, until recently capital and intelligence are paying it increased attention, as in other counties, with the prospect of returning it to its former importance. At Cherokee is operated one of the best appointed hydraulic mines in the State, where by skillful engineering a stream of water is supplied which crosses the West Branch of Feather River in an inverted siphon of iron, having a depression of 830 feet below the outlet, and 980 feet below the inlet. These mines produce about half a million dollars of gold annually, one bar made from a single clean up in 1873 being worth $72,000, the largest ever made in any mining country.

The principal streams are Feather River and its branches in the eastern portion, the Rio Seco, Butte, Little Butte, Chico and Rock Creeks flowing into the plain toward Sacramento, and the Sacramento along its western border. The interior streams afford fine facilities for manufacturing, milling and irrigating purposes, and the beautiful Sacramento bears on its bosom the rich freight which the fertile farms and prolific hills supply. The Northern California Railroad, on the eastern side of Feather River, connects Oroville and Marysville, having 13½ miles of track in this county, and the California and Oregon Railroad runs diagonally forty miles across it. Some singularly rugged mountain peaks, or buttes, rising from the midst of the Sacramento Valley, give the county its name.

Officers: William S Safford, County Judge: Thos. Callow, Clerk; Patrick Ogilby Hundley, District Attorney; Samuel L. Daniels. Sheriff and Tax Collector; William Armstrong, Recorder and Auditor; William Schneider, Treasurer; Joseph C. Werisbaugher, Assessor; James McGann, Surveyor; Louis W. Hoops, Public Administrator; Hiram T. Batchelder, Superintendent Public Schools.

California Gazetteer | AHGP California

Source: Pacific Coast Business Directory for 1876-78, Compiled by Henry G. Langley, San Francisco, 1875