Richvale (also, Richland, Silbys Switch, Silsby) is a small census-designated place[4] (population 244) in Butte County, California, US, south of Chico and west of Oroville.

The primary crop grown in the area surrounding Richvale is rice, irrigated from the Oroville Dam on the Feather River.

Richvale is located at 39° 29' 38" North, 121° 44' 41" West, 108 feet (33 m) above sea level.

Legend says that the name "Richvale" (meaning "fertile valley") was coined by con men to sell worthless plots of land to wheat farmers from Nebraska and Kansas.

[6][7] The locals call the soil "adobe" due to its high clay content.

Those who stayed built a community from the muddy ground up: a post office (1912), roads, an irrigation and drainage district, a hotel (1913), a church (1913), a cooperative (1914 and still operating, the Butte County Rice Growers Association), a school (1914), and a grocery store (1920).

During a second wave of migration Dust Bowl farmers came west during the Great Depression.

With time and a lot of hard work, the town of Richvale lived up to its name as rice farming provided an abundant livelihood for the original settlers and their offspring.