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History · Madeline

Madeline’s post office opened in 1875

Below: maps from 1962 on and old-book passages.

1875first post office
0on the National Register
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Quick answers

How Madeline began

When was Madeline founded?

1875

The Madeline post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 21151 years
Founding year: the first Madeline post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Madeline’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Madeline are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Madeline’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Madeline’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Madeline, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Madeline yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Madeline is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lassen County, California, United States. It is located 45 miles (72 km) north-northeast of Susanville, at an elevation of 5325 feet (1623 m). Its population is 21 as of the 2020 census. A post office was operated at Madeline from 1875 to 1878, and from 1879 to 1882. It was reopened in 1887, and moved in 1902. The zip code for the town is 96119. Operating in 1964. Madeline was formerly a stop on the now-abandoned Nevada-California-Oregon Railway, later taken over by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Its first post office opened in 1875.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Madeline in 1916

Passages that mention Madeline, cut from the printed page as they were published.

John B. McKissick says that some time during this year Daniel McDonald located what is now the Van Loan ranch on Madeline Plains, two and one half miles northwest of MecDonald’s Peak, and Theodore Winters located the Williams ranch four miles west of where Madeline Station now is. It is not known w…
Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County California1916 · page 441Read the page →
Read the text

John B. McKissick says that some time during this year Daniel McDonald located what is now the Van Loan ranch on Madeline Plains, two and one half miles northwest of MecDonald’s Peak, and Theodore Winters located the Williams ranch four miles west of where Madeline Station now is. It is not known whether they put up any buildings or not. J. O. Hemler says that Jacob McKissick and J. D. Byers took their cattle onto Madeline Plains and made their headquarters at what was after-

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

Madeline, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Lassen-Modoc County Border, California2007Lassen-Modoc County Border, CaliforniaFar Northeast Lassen County, California, with Moon Lake in Foreground2007Far Northeast Lassen County, California, with Moon La…
On the map

Madeline on the map, 1962 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Madeline. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Madeline on the 1962 USGS mapMadeline on the 1983 USGS map1962Madeline sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Madeline.

Famous people

Famous people close to Madeline

Nobody well known was born in Madeline itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Ernest S. BrownAmerican politician · b. 1903
R
Robert LaxaltAmerican writer · b. 1923

Questions about Madeline’s history

What year was Madeline founded?

The Madeline post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.