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California Counties

The U.S. state of California is divided into fifty-eight counties.

On January 4, 1850, the California constitutional committee recommended the formation of 18 counties. They were Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mount Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Sutter. On April 22, the counties of Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba were added. Benicia was renamed Solano, Coloma to El Dorado, Fremont to Yola, Mt. Diablo to Contra Costa, San Jose to Santa Clara, Oro to Tuolumne, and Redding to Shasta. One of the first state legislative acts regarding counties was to rename Branciforte County to Santa Cruz, Colusi to Colusa, and Yola to Yolo.

The last California county to have been established is Imperial County in 1907.

Contra Costa County, California

Contra Costa County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Martinez
Year Organized: 1850
Square Miles: 720

Court House:

651 Pine Street, 11th Floor
County Administration Building
Martinez, CA 94553-1229

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The name signifies "opposite coast," because of its situation opposite San Francisco, in an easterly direction, on San Francisco Bay. In 1853, Alameda County was formed from territory originally included in this county.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

The County of Contra Costa, California (the "County") was incorporated in 1850 as one of the original 27 counties of the State of California (the "State"), with the City of Martinez as the County Seat. It is one of the nine counties in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area. The County is the ninth most populous county in California, with its population reaching approximately 1,051,677 as of January 1, 2008.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 802 square miles (2,078 km²), of which, 720 square miles (1,865 km²) of it is land and 82 square miles (213 km²) of it (10.25%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Solano County
Northeast: Sacramento County
East: San Joaquin County
South: Alameda County
West: San Francisco Bay; Marin County

Cities and Towns:

- Antioch	city	Incorporated Area
- Brentwood	city	Incorporated Area
- Clayton	city	Incorporated Area
- Concord	city	Incorporated Area
- Danville	town	Incorporated Area
- El Cerrito	city	Incorporated Area
- Hercules	city	Incorporated Area
- Lafayette	city	Incorporated Area
- Martinez (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Moraga	town	Incorporated Area
- Oakley	city	Incorporated Area
- Orinda	city	Incorporated Area
- Pinole	city	Incorporated Area
- Pittsburg	city	Incorporated Area
- Pleasant Hill	city	Incorporated Area
- Richmond	city	Incorporated Area
- San Pablo	city	Incorporated Area
- San Ramon	city	Incorporated Area
- Walnut Creek	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Online High Schools

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

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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