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Please add those who were born, lived or died in Oroville, California.
Oroville is located 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 gold miners.
The town was originally named "Ophir City", but was later changed to Oroville when the first post office opened in 1854 (oro is the Spanish word for 'gold'). The City of Oroville was incorporated on January 3, 1906.
Gold was found at Bidwell Bar, one of the first gold mining sites in California, bringing thousands of prospectors to the Oroville area seeking riches. 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 from 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 would make frequent stops at Oroville station during the course of 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[when?] 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.
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's Center at Lake Oroville has a thorough exhibit and documentary film on Ishi and his life in society.[citation needed]
Archaeological finds place the northwestern border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Oroville area.
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 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. Local Nazi leader Perry "Red" Wartham 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 south of Oroville.
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.
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.