After the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed much of the town of Paradise, Oroville's population increased as many people who lost their homes moved there.

[7] Oroville is on the banks of the Feather River, which flows from the Sierra Nevada onto the flat floor of the California Central Valley.

[10] The town was originally named "Ophir City", but was renamed Oroville when the first post office opened in 1854 (oro is Spanish for "gold").

[12] Gold was found at Bidwell Bar, one of California's first gold-mining sites, bringing thousands of prospectors to the Oroville area.

770 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places) was built in 1863 to cater to the biggest Chinese colony north of Sacramento.

Ehmann was a believer in women's suffrage and a friend of Susan B. Anthony[16] 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.

[citation needed] Archaeological finds place the northwestern border for the prehistoric Martis people in the Oroville area.

[17] 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.

[18] 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.

[19][20] 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.

[21] One thousand people marched in Oroville in protest of Nazi and Ku Klux Klan activity on December 11, 1982.

Shortly after being put into service, this structure began to show signs of being undermined, raising fears of catastrophic failure.

[25] 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.

Geologically, Oroville is situated at the meeting place of three provinces: the Central Valley alluvial plain to the west, the crystalline Sierra Nevada to the SE and the volcanic Cascade Mountains to the north.

[citation needed] Oroville sits on the eastern rim of the Great Valley, defined today by the floodplains of the Sacramento River and its tributaries.

These sit on top of the Sierran basement, which beneath eastern Oroville comprise greenschist-facies metavolcanic rocks of Jurassic age, giving way to granites of the Sierra batholith to the east.

These are manifestations of a vigorous island arc sequence, built out over an east-dipping subduction zone of mid-to-late Mesozoic age.

The gold veins lace this ancient arc, remobilized by Mesozoic shearing and intrusions of igneous rock.

The largest industries in Oroville as of 2017 are: Healthcare and Social Assistance (20%), Retail Trade (11%), and Accommodation and Food Service (10%).

[citation needed] Oroville is home to KOYO-LP, a low-power community radio station owned and operated by the Bird Street Arbor Day Media Project.

The station was built by numerous volunteers from Oroville and around the region in April 2002 at the second Prometheus Radio Project barnraising.

The Oroville Fire Department is responsible for calls within the city jurisdiction of approximately 13 square miles (34 km2) with a population of 16,260 (as of 2015).

The Koppers Co. plant was listed on September 21, 1984, for pentachlorophenol (PCP), dioxin, furan, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), and heavy metals (copper, chromium, and arsenic) contamination due to chemicals spilled on unpaved areas.

[50][51] The Louisiana-Pacific sawmill was listed on June 10, 1986, for pentachlorophenol PCP, dioxin, furan, heavy metals (arsenic, boron, and copper), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination.

[52][53] The Western Pacific Railroad yard was listed on August 30, 1990, for volatile organic compound (VOC) and heavy metals (arsenic, lead, and chromium) contamination.