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California State...
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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. |
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Yolo County, California
Yolo County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Woodland
Year Organized: 1850
Square Miles: 1,012
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Court House: 625 Court Street
County Administration Building
Woodland, CA 95695-3448
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Etymology - Origin of County Name
In the original act of 1850, the name was spelled "Yola." Yolo
is an Indian name variously believed to be a corruption of an Indian tribal name
Yo-loy meaning "a place abounding in rushes" or of the name of the Indian chief,
Yodo, or of the Indian village of Yodoi.
Demographics:
County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick
Facts
History
Yolo County was one of the original 27 counties created when California became a state in
1850.
In the original act of 1850 the name was spelled "Yola." Yolo is a Native American name variously believed to be a
corruption of a tribal name Yo-loy meaning "a place abounding in rushes" or of the name of the chief, Yodo, or of the
village of Yodoi. To some, Yolo also serves as an acronym for "you only live once".
The first recorded contact with Westerners occurred in the late 1830s. These included Spanish missionaries as well as
trappers and hunters who could be found along the banks of “Cache Creek” – named by French-Canadian trappers. The first
white settler was William Gordon who received a land grant from the Mexican government in 1842 and began planting wheat
and other crops.
The towns of Yolo County were out-growths of native villages along waterways. Its first town, Fremont, was founded in
1849 along the confluence of the Sacramento and Feather Rivers and became the first county seat. Knights Landing,
Washington, Cacheville (later called Yolo), Clarksburg, Winters, Esparto, Capay, Guinda, and Davisville (Davis) were all
built near waterways. Davisville had the added advantage of being on the path of the newly constructed railroad.
Woodland, which became the county seat in 1862, began in a wooded area of valley oaks and was also served by a nearby
railroad.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,023 square miles (2,649 kmē),
of which, 1,013 square miles (2,624 kmē) of it is land and 10 square miles (25 kmē) of it (0.94%) is
water.
Yolo County 653,549 acres is located in the rich agricultural regions of
California’s Central Valley and the Sacramento River Delta. It is directly west of Sacramento, the State
Capital of California, and northeast of the Bay Area counties of Solano and Napa. The eastern two-thirds
of the county consists of nearly level alluvial fans, flat plains and basins, while the western third is
largely composed of rolling terraces and steep uplands used for dry-farmed grain and range. The
elevation ranges from slightly below sea level near the Sacramento River around Clarksburg to 3,000 feet
along the ridge of the western mountains. Putah Creek descends from Lake Berryessa offering fishing and
camping opportunities and wanders through the arboretum of the University of California at Davis. Cache
Creek, flowing from Clear Lake, offers class II-III rapids for white water rafting and kayaking.
Neighboring Counties:
- Northeast: Sutter County
- Southeast: Sacramento County
- South: Solano County
- Southwest: Napa County
- Northwest: Lake County; Colusa County
Cities and Towns:
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- Davis |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- West Sacramento |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Winters |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Woodland
(County Seat) |
city |
Incorporated Area |
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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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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