Lake Madrone

Lake Madrone is a small but phe­nom­e­nal­ly beau­ti­ful lake sur­round­ed by a gat­ed moun­tain com­mu­ni­ty along Berry Creek just off Oro-Quin­cy High­way in Oroville. Char­ac­ter­ized by vast land­scapes and the great out­doors, the 25-acre lake is a love­ly retreat in the respite of nature. Any sea­son is a great sea­son to vis­it, with beau­ti­ful fall col­ors, win­ter snow­falls, spring wild­flow­ers, and sum­mers per­fect for lake­side days.

Who Can Vis­it Lake Madrone?

Lake Madrone is a pri­vate escape for res­i­dents and renters look­ing to get away for the week­end, a week or two, or for a whole sea­son. Vaca­tion rentals are avail­able among the hous­es estab­lished on the forest­ed land around the lake. A ski beach serves the Lake Madrone com­mu­ni­ty where var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ty events such as pic­nics are held. Swim­ming, boat­ing, and fish­ing are allowed on the lake.

About Lake Madrone

Before the Cal­i­for­nia Gold Rush, the lake area was home to the Maidu peo­ple. In 1850, a trail was estab­lished through the Sier­ra Moun­tains from Reno to Marysville for Gold Rush­ers to trav­el, pass­ing through the region where Lake Madrone is cur­rent­ly locat­ed. As hotels and oth­er estab­lish­ments rose up around the pass, gold was dis­cov­ered in the 1900s near Berry Creek. The dis­cov­ery, which occurred a quar­ter mile south of today’s Lake Madrone, was the begin­ning of many in that area and the Berry Creek Mine became one of the rich­est mines in Butte Coun­ty. In the wake of the suc­cess of the mine, devel­op­ment followed.

In 1928, George C. Mans­field con­vinced the state to build a dam across Berry Creek for the high­way and thus Lake Madrone was formed. On Decem­ber 2, 1929, Mans­field, along with fel­low Cana­di­an native, Dun­can McCal­lum, estab­lished the Feath­er Riv­er For­est Homes Unit 1 sub­di­vi­sion on the south side of the lake. Short­ly there­after they estab­lished the Lake­view addi­tion on the south-east side and then the Cas­cade addi­tion on the north-east side of the lake. The first lot was sold to Will and Vida Bond of Gridley.