24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Magalia, CA

Magalia is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Butte County, sitting on the forested ridge between the West Branch of the Feather River and Little Butte Creek, next to the town of Paradise.

Magalia began as a Gold Rush mining camp shortly after 1849 and was first called Mountain View, then Butte Mills, after the water-powered sawmill on Little Butte Creek.

A dog-breeding operation started in 1850 left the camp with far more dogs than houses — one early account counted sixteen dogs and only ten houses — and the place became famous as 'Dogtown.'

A post office opened at Magalia in 1857, and in 1861 the town took its present name, Magalia, from the Latin word for 'cottages.'

On April 12, 1859, miners at the Willard Claim northeast of town unearthed a 54-pound gold nugget — the largest in the world at the time — forever known as the Dogtown Nugget.

The Dogtown Nugget discovery is commemorated by California Historical Landmark No. 771 on Old Skyway Road in Magalia.

Magalia covers about 14.1 square miles of pine-forested ridge in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The November 2018 Camp Fire, one of the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in California history, swept through the ridge and devastated Magalia along with neighboring Paradise.

Magalia's population fell from 11,310 in the 2010 census to 7,795 in the 2020 census in the wake of the Camp Fire.

Magalia has about 3,000 households, and about 83% of its homes are owner-occupied.