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California Counties
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California Counties
On January 4, 1850, a committee of California's first constitutional convention, chaired by General Mariano Vallejo,
recommended the creation of eighteen counties. They were Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mt.
Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara,
Sonoma, and Sutter.
Between January 4 and February 18, 1850, the California legislature added nine counties to the list recommended by
General Vallejo's committee, some of the changes based on additional recommendations by the committee. The nine added
counties were Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba. This brought the total
number of counties to 27. The legislature also approved several name changes. Benicia was renamed El Dorado, Fremont was
renamed Yola, Mt. Diablo was renamed Contra Costa, San Jose was renamed Santa Clara, Oro was renamed Tuolumne, and
Redding was renamed Shasta.
Most of California's counties were named by Spanish explorers, often for a Roman Catholic
saint whose feast day intersected with the advance into a new part of Alta California. Native American
names are also represented, with a smattering of counties named for local figures from the early
American era. Many counties are named after Spanish missions.
Effective February 18, 1850, twenty-seven counties were created in California. The new counties were Branciforte, Butte,
Calaveras, Colusi, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, San
Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Trinity,
Tuolumne, Yola, and Yuba.
In early 1850, not long after the legislature adopted its first statute creating counties, new statutes were adopted
changing some county names. Branciforte was changed to Santa Cruz, Colusi was changed to Colusa, and Yola was changed to
Yolo.
On September 9, 1850, California became the State of California with the same twenty-seven counties.
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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Penn Foster High School
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