Butte County, California
Butte County · Oroville is the seat · Chico is not the hall · Paradise is a Town · the Camp Fire is this map · Sacramento is the capital
Oroville is the seat. Chico is the large city, not the hall. Sacramento is the capital.
Butte County, California, was created 18 February 1850 as one of the original counties, and named for the buttes on the valley floor. Oroville is the county seat. Sacramento is the capital of California. Oroville is not the capital. Chico is not the hall. Paradise is not the hall. Do not read this page as Autauga-with-rice. Do not read this page as Alameda-with-a-dam. Do not read this page as Chico-as-the-county. Prattville is Autauga. Oakland is Alameda. Chico is a city in this county. None of those is this oval.
Chico is the largest city — not the hall. The Town of Paradise is a municipality — not the county government. Gridley is a city — not the hall. Biggs is a city — not the hall. Magalia, Concow, Durham, Thermalito, Palermo, Forest Ranch, Forbestown, and Butte Meadows are unincorporated communities — remainder, not a second seat. This is not Butte, Montana. This is not the City of Butte. This is not a Chico campus as this government.
This page is Side One for the place. The Sheriff’s job — North Valley remainder patrol, a Biggs contract, and the Oroville jail this badge still holds on Gillick Way — is taught at Office of the Sheriff — Butte County.
Five Supervisors at 25 County Center. They do not sit as Chico City Council.
Butte is a general-law county. A five-member Board of Supervisors, elected by district, sits at the County Administration Building, 25 County Center Drive, Suite 205, Oroville, CA 95965 — Clerk of the Board (530) 552-3300. They fund roads, the One Court Street campus, and the Sheriff’s budget. They do not hire the Sheriff. The people do. Chico City Council is a city body. Oroville City Council is a city body. The California Legislature sits in Sacramento. None of those is this Board.
The live Superior Court lists at One Court Street, Oroville, CA 95965-3303 — main (530) 532-7002. Do not invent a Chico courthouse as this county’s hall. Confirm live at buttecounty.net and butte.courts.ca.gov.
The Sheriff is a county officer (California Constitution Article XI; Government Code § 24000). This Sheriff is not on the 2026 gubernatorial table. Elections Code § 1300 (AB 759, 2022) moved sheriff and district attorney to the presidential primary. A sheriff elected in 2022 serves a six-year term; the next regular is the 2028 presidential primary. Last regular 7 June 2022 (finished in the primary on this map). Take office at noon on the first Monday after January 1 succeeding election (Gov. Code § 24200). The Governor is 2026. That is a different desk in Sacramento.
The Feather is a river. Paradise is a Town. Chico is not this government.
State Route 70, State Route 99, State Route 32, and State Route 149 are the spines. The Feather River and Lake Oroville are water, not a Sutter badge. Oroville Dam is in this county — the 2017 spillway crisis sat here. The Camp Fire (2018) destroyed most of Paradise and Concow — this map, not a Chico municipal rewrite. The Park Fire (2024) started in Bidwell Park — still this county’s land, even where Chico PD answers a city 911. CSU Chico is a campus — not this government. Tehama is north — Red Bluff is that hall. Glenn is west — Willows is that hall. Colusa is southwest — Colusa is that hall. Sutter is south — Yuba City is that hall. Yuba is southeast — Marysville is that hall. Plumas is east — Quincy is that hall. Staff who paste a Chico photograph onto County Center Drive, or treat Paradise as this county government, or file Butte, Montana, as this hall, or rewrite this county as Autauga-with-rice, are on the wrong county.
How a North Valley public finds Gillick Way, One Court Street, and 25 County Center
Board of Supervisors: 25 County Center Drive, Suite 205, Oroville. Elections / Hall of Records: 155 Nelson Avenue, Oroville, CA 95965 — buttevotes.net, (530) 552-3400. Sheriff Administration: 5 Gillick Way, Oroville, CA 95965 — main (530) 552-5300. Jail mail / Corrections: 7 Gillick Way, Oroville, CA 95965 — jail (530) 552-1600. Live court: One Court Street, Oroville. Chico civil substation: 402 Otterson Drive, Suite 120, Chico, CA 95928 — civil (530) 552-5450; that is a door in the large city, not the hall. Magalia office: 14166 Skyway, Magalia, CA 95954. Confirm live at buttecounty.net Sheriff and buttecounty.net. A student who only knows a Chico postcard, or a Sacramento photograph as this county, or treats City Hall as the jail, has not found this campus.
This Sheriff still holds the Oroville jail. Chico PD does not. The Camp Fire did not retire this desk.
Crime in unincorporated Butte — Magalia, Concow, Durham, Thermalito, Palermo, Forest Ranch, Forbestown, Butte Meadows, and the remainder — is this Sheriff. Crime in Chico is often Chico Police. Crime in Oroville is often Oroville Police. Crime in Paradise is often Paradise Police. Crime in Gridley is often Gridley Police. Biggs contracts this Sheriff — still this office, not a second county. This Sheriff is not those municipal departments. Chico PD is a city badge. This Sheriff is the county. Butte County Jail on Gillick Way, Oroville, is this badge’s shop. The Sheriff’s own Corrections page rates it 614 and calls it the largest county correctional facility north of Sacramento, with an average daily population over 540. Confirm live capacity; an expansion on the same Gillick campus has been unveiled and opens in phases — do not invent a Chico jail as this house. Official doors did not show a separate county Department of Corrections taking this house — do not invent a jailer split.
CDCR is not this Sheriff. CHP is a state badge. CSU Chico Police is a campus badge. Do not send a family looking for a county booking to Chico PD headquarters, to a Paradise rumor, to Yuba City (Sutter), or to Butte, Montana.
Care without inventing Bidwell Park as this county hall
A peace order served in Magalia remainder. A court-ordered transport from Gillick Way to One Court Street without becoming Chico PD. Search and rescue on the Ridge and in the Feather River Canyon. Reverse-911 and Alert FM on a Camp Fire map. Do not invent a church. Do not invent Chico as this hall. Do not invent Sacramento as this hall.
What Butte actually watches
Court calendar on One Court Street. A wreck on Highway 70. Heat on the valley floor. Fire on the Ridge. High water on the Feather. The dam. Coordination with Chico PD, Oroville PD, Paradise PD, Gridley PD, CHP, and campus police without becoming those departments. Coordination with Tehama’s Sheriff or Plumas’s Sheriff is mutual aid between two offices, not a merger. Bidwell Park is Chico’s park. The Camp Fire is this county’s history. Neither is Chico PD as this oval.
Oroville civic snapshot (verify official sources)
- State: California · County: Butte · Seat: Oroville · Capital of California: Sacramento
- Map: Oroville · Chico (large city, not the hall) · Paradise · Gridley · Biggs · Magalia remainder · Highway 70 · Highway 99 · the Feather · Camp Fire land
- Not Chico as the hall · Not Butte, Montana · Not Chico PD as this oval · Not Autauga-with-rice
- Board: five Supervisors at 25 County Center Drive
- Sheriff clock: not 2026 · last regular 2022 · next regular 2028 presidential primary · six-year bridge from AB 759
- Jail: Gillick Way, Oroville — this Sheriff still holds it · rated 614 on the office’s own page · not a Chico house
Orientation adapted from the California Constitution Article XI, Elections Code § 1300, Government Code §§ 24000, 24200, 25304, and 26600, Butte County official pages (buttecounty.net, buttevotes.net), Butte Superior Court locations, and the Secretary of State for education. The Sheriff of record is whatever those sources say today. Confirm HQ versus court versus jail, Oroville versus Chico, and Chico PD versus this badge, on official pages before you travel.
What Oroville is not, as this county
- Not the capital of California. Sacramento is.
- Not Chico as the hall. Not Butte, Montana.
- Not Paradise / Gridley / Biggs as the county government.
- Not Chico Police as this oval. Not Oroville / Paradise / Gridley Police. Not CHP. Not CSU Chico Police.
- Not a Chico jail. Not Sutter’s house in Yuba City.
- Not Autauga-with-rice. Not Alameda-with-a-dam.
- Not the Governor (that desk is 2026 in Sacramento).
- Not a campaign flyer.