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California Counties

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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.

San Bernardino County, California

San Bernardino County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: San Bernardino
Year Organized: 1853
Square Miles: 20,062

Court House:

385 North Arrowhead Avenue
County Government Center
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0110

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Saint Bernard is the patron saint of mountain passes. The name Bernardino means "bold as a bear." The Spanish gave the name San Bernardino to the snowcapped peak in southern California, in honor of the saint; from him the county derived its name.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Father Francisco Dumetz named San Bernardino on May 20, 1810, feast day of St. Bernardino of Siena.

San Bernardino County was formed from parts of Los Angeles County in 1853. Parts of the county's territory were given to Riverside County in 1893.

Paleo-Indian sites dating from c. 10,000 BC show that the San Bernardino county area has been inhabited for at least 12,000 years. Artifacts in the Calico area suggest much earlier human occupation, but this has not been confirmed. In the past three thousand years various Indian tribes flourished in the area: the Gabrielenos occupied the West Valley; the Serranos lived in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains; the Vanyumes lived along the Mojave River; the Mohave lived along the Colorado River; and in the 1500s the Chemehuevi moved into the Mojave Desert.

The first explorers to enter the area were Pedro Fages, Military Commander of California, in 1772 and Fr. Francisco Garces, a missionary priest, in 1774. On May 20, 1810, Franciscan missionary Francisco Dumatz, of the San Gabriel Mission, led his company into a valley. In observance of the feast day of St. Bernardine of Siena, Dumatz named the valley San Bernardino. This name was later given to the nearby mountain range, and later the city and county.

In 1842 the Lugo family was granted the Rancho San Bernardino, a holding of 37,700 acres encompassing the entire San Bernardino Valley. Captain Jefferson Hunt, of the Mormon Battalion, led a group of settlers into San Bernardino. In 1851 the Mormon Colony purchased the Rancho from the Lugos.

In 1860 gold was discovered in Holcomb and Bear Valleys in the San Bernardino Mountains, and placer mining began in Lytle Creek. Silver was being mined at Ivanpah in 1870, and the rich silver mines of the Calico district were developed in the 1880s. Borax was first discovered in 1862 in the Searles Dry Lake area near Trona, and transported out by twelve-, eighteen- or twenty-mule team wagons.

In 1857 three orange trees were set out on a farm in Old San Bernardino; by 1882 a rail car load of oranges and lemons grown in the East Valley was being shipped to Denver. As early as the 1840s vineyards were planted in the Cucamonga area and in the 1870 census San Bernardino County was credited with producing 48,720 gallons of wine.

In 1850 California was admitted into the United States. On April 26, 1853, San Bernardino County was created from parts of Los Angeles, San Diego and Mariposa Counties. In 1854 the city of San Bernardino was incorporated as the county seat. In 1893 Riverside County was created out of parts of San Bernardino and San Diego Counties.

Many noted people have been associated with San Bernardino County history. Jedediah Smith was an early explorer (1826); Kit Carson traversed the Cajon Pass with a group of trappers in 1830; as a teenager Wyatt Earp and his family traveled to San Bernardino by wagon train, arriving in 1864; President Lyndon Johnson worked as an elevator operator in the Platt Building in San Bernardino in 1925; and President Bill Clinton visited the recently closed Norton Air Force Base in May 1994.

Geography

The Mojave National Preserve covers some of the eastern desert, especially between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The desert portion also includes the cities of Needles next to the Colorado River, and Barstow at the junction in Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. Trona is at the northwestern part of the county west of Death Valley. This famous national park, mostly within Inyo County, also has a small portion of land within the county. The largest metropolitan area in the Mojave Desert part of the county is the Victor Valley with the incorporated localities of Apple Valley, Victorville, Adelanto, and Hesperia. Further south, a portion of Joshua Tree National Park overlaps the county near Twentynine Palms. Additional places near and west of Twentynine palms include Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, and Morongo Valley.

The Arrowhead natural feature is the source of many local names and icons, such as Lake Arrowhead and the County of San Bernardino's seal.The mountains are home to the San Bernardino National Forest, and include the communities of Crestline, Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, Big Bear City, Forest Falls, and Big Bear Lake.

The San Bernardino Valley is at the eastern end of the San Gabriel Valley, and is part of the Inland Empire. The San Bernardino Valley includes the cities of Ontario, Chino, Chino Hills, Upland, Fontana, Rialto, Colton, Grand Terrace, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, Loma Linda, Highland, Redlands, and Yucaipa.

The Inland Empire area of Southern California is made up of the southwestern portion of San Bernardino County and western portion of Riverside county.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Clark County, Nev.; Mohave County, Ariz.
Southeast: La Paz County, Ariz.
South: Riverside County
Southwest: Orange County; Los Angeles County
West: Kern County
Northwest: Inyo County

Cities and Towns:

- Adelanto	city	Incorporated Area
- Apple Valley	town	Incorporated Area
- Barstow	city	Incorporated Area
- Big Bear Lake	city	Incorporated Area
- Blythe	city	Incorporated Area
- Chino	city	Incorporated Area
- Chino Hills	city	Incorporated Area
- Colton	city	Incorporated Area
- Fontana	city	Incorporated Area
- Grand Terrace	city	Incorporated Area
- Hesperia	city	Incorporated Area
- Highland	city	Incorporated Area
- Loma Linda	city	Incorporated Area
- Montclair	city	Incorporated Area
- Needles	city	Incorporated Area
- Ontario	city	Incorporated Area
- Rancho Cucamonga	city	Incorporated Area
- Redlands	city	Incorporated Area
- Rialto	city	Incorporated Area
- San Bernardino (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Upland	city	Incorporated Area
- Victorville	city	Incorporated Area
- Yucaipa	city	Incorporated Area
- Yucca Valley	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."