Butte

Formed February 18, 1850 (1^st county)

Butte County (211,631), Oroville (20,104), Chico (102,816)

The Modern style concrete Butte County courthouse at County Center Drive and Court Street was built in 1995.  California State Highway 70 passes one block to the west.  Michael Ross, Charles Drulis, and Dreyfus & Blackford are the courthouse designers.  An administrative center was built in 1975.  An augmenting courthouse is in Chico.  An earlier 1856 courthouse was in Oroville.  February 18, 1850 Butte County came into being as the 1^st county.  The county is an original county.  Butte County gets its name from the Sutter Buttes, a small range of hills in the county.  Oroville was a mining city first called Ophir City then changed to Oroville for the Spanish word for “gold.”  County courthouses have been at Hamilton (1850), Bidwell’s Bar (1853), and Oroville (1856.) 

Butte County government consists of a sheriff, assessor, controller, and treasurer (executive).  It has 5 Supervisors (legislative.)  Eleven Superior Court Judges, clerk, and counsel serve Butte County (judicial.)  The county is in the north part of the state with the Sierra Nevada Mountains in its eastern part.  Sacramento, California is south of the county.  The Sacramento River is part of its western border and the Feather River is part of the south border.  The county center is 17.3 miles North-Northeast of Oroville nearer Cherokee.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Tehama, Plumas, Yuba, Sutter, Colusa, and Glenn counties.  The county is shaped like a squashed bullhorn.  Oroville is in the southern half of the county.  Chico is in the northwest quarter of the county.  Oroville is the county seat and Chico is the largest city.  Oroville is 9.5% of the county population while Chico is 48.6% of the county population.  The county is pronounced BUET.  The county seat is pronounced O-ROE-VIL.  The largest city is pronounced CHEE-KOE.  

The area of the county is 1640 square miles.  It is 29 out of 58 in the state.  It ranks 28 out of 58 in population in the state.  It has a density of 129.0 persons per square mile making it 27 out of 58 in the state.  Butte County has 64.8% of its population in its incorporated areas.  There are no Interstates or United States Highways in the county.  This county is in the Chico Metropolitan Statistical Area.