Exploring The Oroville Dam and Fish Hatchery!
My trip to Sacramento County, Chico and Mount Shasta County is in the record books! My visit was absolutely awesome, and reminded me just how important it is to get away from it all, unplug a bit and have some FUN adventures with great friends. I have so much I want to share about my time in the “530 area code” and thought for my first of a “mini series” of articles, I would tell you something I think is a pretty interesting fact, and, as a Los Angeles native, was not aware:
Did you know a lot of LA’s water comes from Sacramento County?! How did I not know this?! I admit, I did not even realize the city of Oroville (70 miles outside of Sacramento) even had a dam. One of my sweetest (and longest) friends, Ariel, took me on out to Oroville to see the historical, city land marks. It was a little adventure, a lot field trip, and right up my alley.
While the dam has certainly seen better days, I was pleasantly surprised that our drought had not completely wiped out the water supply. With a capacity of 3.5 million acre-feet. (One acre-foot equals 325,900 gallons.), the lake goes on for endless miles, and its long road down to the vista point makes it a scenic spot to take a jog, take a break and look on out into the horizon…or, maybe do some Pokemon hunting 😉
Several plaques are placed at the point, with some paying tribute to the incredible workers lost during their ordeal of building this reservoir (hence the term, “man-made”.). Quotes state that these un-sung heroes simply asked to have their name put on a wall, should they not survive to see its completion, and their wish was granted.
Moving just further down, back in the town of Oroville (which boasts some gorgeous Victorian era homes, and architecture), we got to the Feather River Fish Hatchery! Did you know wild salmon swim through there?! I literally was learning something (or a few things) each day.
While I could easily see Oroville may get a little….repetitive? Simple? if you have, say, lived there forever. But, on a road trip up California, it is well worth it to make a pit stop to The Oroville Dam, as well as the fish hatchery. There is so much history to be discovered and learned in Northern California. You often forget there’s a whole world out there beyond precious SoCal!
Learn more about Oroville HERE.