Dixie Fire wasn’t the first to destroy Greenville. What to know about California town

Residents of Greenville are reeling after the Dixie Fire decimated their community, and it isn’t the first time a catastrophic blaze has hit the historic California town.

Another blaze destroyed most of the buildings north of Main Street in 1881, the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce says.

The raging Dixie Fire, which has blackened more than 322,500 acres to become California’s sixth-largest wildfire in recorded history, roared through Greenville on Wednesday night.

More than 75 percent of the town has been destroyed, federal fire officials said.

“We lost Greenville tonight,” an emotional Rep. Doug LaMalfa, whose congressional district includes Plumas County, said on Facebook late Wednesday. “My heart is aching.”

The town in the rural Indian Valley of the Sierra Nevada county had a population of just over 1,100 in 2010. It’s the home of the annual Gold Digger Days celebration in July, a county tourism site says.

“Strolling down the quaint main street of Greenville is like walking back in time,” the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship site says. “There are few towns left in California with the personality of Greenville.”

Originally inhabited by the Maidu tribe, the area now known as Greenville began attracting settlers in 1850, with the first house in town constructed in 1861, according to the chamber of commerce.

Greenville thrived as a more conveniently located town serving the gold mining community of Round Valley, which petered out and became a ghost town, the trail stewardship site says.

The growing town took its name from the owner of its first boarding house, named Green, who died in a dam collapse, the chamber of commerce reports.

When a fire ravaged the town in 1881, Greenville had more than 500 residents. The burned buildings were rebuilt, with logging and ranching replacing prospecting. Now recreation and tourism are economic mainstays of the community.

This story was originally published August 5, 2021 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Dixie Fire wasn’t the first to destroy Greenville. What to know about California town."