Publication Date
2019
Abstract
This poster presents information about the history of Paradise.
In the mid-19th Century, three Native-American tribes, known collectively as the Maidu, inhabited the area around Paradise. Estimates of their pre-contact population hover around 9,000 people. With the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, the history of modern Paradise begins – with an influx of white settlers and the subsequent near-obliteration of the Native-American people. By 1930, the Maidu numbered less than one hundred.
Other than this calamity, the town’s growth was slow and steady over the course of the next hundred and fifty years – the noteworthy events being those such as the arrival of railroad service, the first post office, and the first church. By 1966, Paradise’s population had grown to about 20,000 people, and in 1979, it was incorporated as a town.
Paradise’s recent history has been unremarkable, save for the two major wildfires that swept through it in this century: the Humboldt Fire in 2008 that killed one person but destroyed 74 homes and burned some 20,000 acres; and of course, the Camp Fire, ten years later, that destroyed 90% of the town.
Disciplines
Architecture
Recommended Citation
Puryear, Emma and Icardo, Gabrielle, "History: Life in Paradise" (2019). Research. 5.
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/paradise_re/5
Included in
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/paradise_re/5