Pulga is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Butte County, California
Butte County () is a county located in the northern central part of the U.S. state of California. In the 2020 census, its population was 211,632. The county seat is Oroville.
Butte County comprises the Chico, California, metropolitan stat ...
. It is located along the west slope of the
Feather River canyon. A variant name for the community is Big Bar.
History
The land was once occupied by
Konkow Maidu tribes.
In 1885, the town of Pulga was founded by William King, a sawmill owner and railroad geologist.
A post office was opened in 1906.
The area had attracted gold miners and miners of
vesuvianite
Vesuvianite, also known as idocrase, is a green, brown, yellow, or blue silicate mineral. Vesuvianite occurs as tetragonal crystals in skarn deposits and limestones that have been subjected to contact metamorphism. It was first discovered withi ...
, also known as "Pulga Jade".
The town was always small, and peaked in size in the 1930s and 1940s with a few hundred people.
The
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...
's
Feather River Route
The Feather River Route is a rail line that was built and operated by the Western Pacific Railroad. It was constructed between 1906 and 1909, and connects the cities of Oakland, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The line was built to comp ...
line ran through the town and offered Vista
Dome car
A dome car is a type of railway Passenger car (rail), passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a Coach (rail), coach, lounge c ...
s, designed and built with the scenery on this route in mind.
By the late-1960s, this was no longer a train route and the mining business had dried up.
In 1994, the William King estate sold the town property, on which the Mystic Valley Retreat and School of Hypnotism was erected; most of the buildings have fallen into disrepair.
In 2015, the town was purchased by Betsy Ann Cowley.
Crowley opened it as a feminist artist retreat and event venue, also named Pulga.
In 2018, high tension lines near the
Poe Dam, north of Pulga, were the cause of the
Camp Fire. Two buildings in Pulga were destroyed and others were damaged.
Geography
Pulga is at the mouth of Flea Valley Creek, which gives rise to the toponym.
A
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...
passes through the settlement.
See also
*
Pulga Bridges
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Unincorporated communities in Butte County, California
Populated places in the Sierra Nevada (United States)
Unincorporated communities in California
Former Western Pacific Railroad stations