Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Richvale, CA

Richvale is a small farming village and census-designated place in Butte County, south of Chico and west of Oroville, surrounded by rice fields.

Local legend says the name 'Richvale' — meaning 'fertile valley' — was coined by land promoters to sell plots to wheat farmers from Nebraska and Kansas; the Richvale Land Company renamed the railroad siding of Selby Switch to Richvale in 1909, and the town was settled in 1911.

The promised rich loam turned out to be heavy Esquon clay that locals call 'adobe' — useless for orchards and vineyards, but its ability to hold water and stay flooded made it a near-ideal rice paddy, and rice became the crop that defined Richvale.

The settlers who stayed built the town from the mud up: an irrigation and drainage district, a hotel and church in 1913, a school in 1914, a grocery store in 1920, and in 1914 the Butte County Rice Growers Association cooperative, which is still operating today.

Richvale's rice is irrigated with Feather River water stored behind Oroville Dam, and in 2005 the Rice Growers Association alone served about 33,500 acres of rice.

A second wave of settlers reached Richvale during the Great Depression, when Dust Bowl farmers migrated west to the Sacramento Valley.

Richvale had a population of 234 at the 2020 census, living in 83 households, and it is a community of homeowners — about 84% of its occupied homes are owner-occupied.

Richvale is the home of Lundberg Family Farms, headquartered on the Midway, and several area farmers are known for organic farming.

Richvale's children are served by the Biggs Unified School District, and the village keeps its own elementary school, Richvale Elementary, on Church Street.