Custom Search

California State...

California Landscape

California

California Counties

Click Image to Enlarge

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.

Trinity County, California

Trinity County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Weaverville
Year Organized: 1850
Square Miles: 3,179

Court House:

11 Court Street, PO Box 1613
County Courthouse
Weaverville, CA 96093-1613

Etymology - Origin of County Name

It takes its name from the Trinity River, named in 1845 by Major Pearson B. Reading, who was under the mistaken impression that the stream emptied into Trinidad Bay. Trinity is the English version of Trinidad.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Trinity County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county were given to Klamath County in 1852 and to Humboldt County in 1853. Klamath County ceased to exist in 1874 after it was dissolved due to corruption and widespread electoral fraud.

Pursuant to an act of the Legislature, approved May 28, 1851, this county, then including also what is now Humboldt, was publicly freed from Shasta tutelage, and five commissioners appointed by the act to superintend the election; but none of these were from what is now Trinity County. The first officers elected were: Dr. Johnson Price, Judge; William Cunningham, District Attorney; John C. Burch, Clerk; William H. Dixon, Sheriff; J. W. McGee, Assessor; Thomas L. Ball, Treasurer.

More at

A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California - Chicago, Lewis Publ. Co., 1891

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,208 square miles (8,307 km²), of which, 3,179 square miles (8,233 km²) of it is land and 29 square miles (75 km²) of it (0.90%) is water. The county contains a significant portion of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, home to the Trinity Alps. The county hosts many visitors, especially during summer months, for camping, backpacking, and fishing. The summers tend to be clear, sunny, warm, and very dry, with little rain from June to September except for some mountain thunderstorms in the highest elevations. The winters tend to have copious precipitation, falling mostly as rain under 1000m/3300 ft in the valley bottoms, and mostly as snow over 1000m/3300ft on the mountainsides. December, January, and February are the wettest. There is an extensive wild river & stream system, and the terrain is quite rugged & forested, with the highest points at around 9,000 ft (2,700 m) The Klamath Mountains occupy the vast portion of the county.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Siskiyou County
East: Shasta County
Southeast: Tehama County
South: Mendocino County
West: Humboldt County

Cities and Towns:

- Weaverville (County Seat)

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

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."

Custom Search