Madeline - California Ghost Town

MADELINE

NAME: Madeline
COUNTY: Lassen
ROADS: 2WD
GRID #(see map): 1
CLIMATE: Warm to pleasant summers, cold winters with occasional heavy snow
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime

COMMENTS: Occupied homes alongside US395 with a couple of businesses catering to traffic on the highway..
REMAINS: Occupied homes and dwellings..

Madeline was an important stop on the Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad, which ran between Reno, Nevada and Lakeview, Oregon. This railroad, along with today's US395, traverses some of the most lonely country in California. In 1902, the N-C-O Railroad reached Madeline townsite. It quickly grew into an important livestock shipping center. Madeline Meadows Land and Irrigation Company, owned and operated by J. Noble Jones, was one of the largest of the companies to base themselves here, and had spent considerable resources trying to colonize the valley. Postcards were circulated showing orange trees growing alongside an irrigation ditch, while a box of "locally grown" oranges were always on display at the Madeline Hotel (this author seriously doubts that oranges could be commercially or successfully grown in this high plateau region with extreme cold temperatures in winter well below zero). Today, a small population lives in Madeline, with a small store serving the needs of the traveling public alongside US395. The tracks of the former N-C-O Railroad, now part of the Western Pacific system, are still intact, although rail traffic is very light. Submitted by David A. Wright, Great Basin Research.	Madeline Courtesy David A. Wright Great Basin Research

Madeline was an important stop on the Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad, which ran between Reno, Nevada and Lakeview, Oregon. This railroad, along with today's US395, traverses some of the most lonely country in California. In 1902, the N-C-O Railroad reached Madeline townsite. It quickly grew into an important livestock shipping center. Madeline Meadows Land and Irrigation Company, owned and operated by J. Noble Jones, was one of the largest of the companies to base themselves here, and had spent considerable resources trying to colonize the valley. Postcards were circulated showing orange trees growing alongside an irrigation ditch, while a box of "locally grown" oranges were always on display at the Madeline Hotel (this author seriously doubts that oranges could be commercially or successfully grown in this high plateau region with extreme cold temperatures in winter well below zero). Today, a small population lives in Madeline, with a small store serving the needs of the traveling public alongside US395. The tracks of the former N-C-O Railroad, now part of the Western Pacific system, are still intact, although rail traffic is very light. Submitted by David A. Wright, Great Basin Research.

Madeline
Courtesy David A. Wright
Great Basin Research

BACK