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Richland

Ghost town · Butte County, California

Biggs quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1912, 1:31,680)
Biggs quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1912, 1:31,680) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Richland is a ghost town in Butte County, California. It is one of 37 former communities in Butte County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 3rd among the 58 California counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Richland as a historical populated place on the Biggs topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 39.3974° N, 121.6461° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleBiggs
Elevation102 ft
Nearest living townGridley, CA
Distance to it3.6 miles
GNIS feature ID1666797
Coordinates39.39739, -121.64608

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Richland today, aerial view
Biggs quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1912, 1:31,680)

Left: Biggs quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1912, 1:31,680), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Richland is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Gridley, CA (population 7,372), about 3.6 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 102 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Richland?

Richland is in Butte County, California, at 39.3974, -121.6461.

How many ghost towns are in Butte County?

Butte County, California has 37 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-06.