A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Siskiyou County, California | |
|---|---|
| County of Siskiyou | |
     Images, from top down, left to right: Mount Shasta, the historic West Miner Street in Yreka, Indian Tom Lake, Captain Jack's Stronghold in the Lava Beds National Monument, the McCloud River | |
 Flag  Seal | |
| Motto: "Mountains of Opportunity" | |
 Interactive map of Siskiyou County | |
 Location in the state of California | |
| Coordinates: 41°35′N 122°30′W / 41.583°N 122.500°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Region | Shasta Cascade |
| Incorporated | 1852 |
| Named for | The Siskiyou Trail |
| County seat | Yreka |
| Largest city | Yreka |
| Government | |
| • Type | Council–Administrator |
| • Chair | Ed Valenzuela |
| • Vice Chair | Michael N. Kobseff |
| • Board of Supervisors[1] | Supervisors
|
| • County Administrator | Terry Barber |
| Area | |
| • Total | 6,347 sq mi (16,440 km2) |
| • Land | 6,278 sq mi (16,260 km2) |
| • Water | 69 sq mi (180 km2) |
| Highest elevation | 14,162 ft (4,317 m) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 44,076 |
| • Density | 6.9/sq mi (2.7/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−8 (Pacific Time Zone) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−7 (Pacific Daylight Time) |
| Area code | 530 |
| FIPS code | 06-093 |
| GNIS feature ID | 277311 |
| Congressional district | 1st |
| Website | co |
Siskiyou County (/ˈsɪskjuː/ ⓘ SISK-yoo) is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,076.[3] Its county seat is Yreka and its highest point is Mount Shasta.[4] It falls within the Cascadia bioregion.[5]
Siskiyou County is in the Shasta Cascade region along the Oregon border. Because of its outdoor recreation, Mt. Shasta, McCloud River, and Gold Rush era history, it is an important tourist destination within the state.[citation needed]
History
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2013) |
Siskiyou County was created on March 22, 1852, from parts of Shasta and Klamath Counties, and named after the Siskiyou mountain range. Parts of the county's territory were given to Modoc County in 1855.
The county is the site of the central section of the Siskiyou Trail, which ran between California's Central Valley and the Pacific Northwest. The Siskiyou Trail followed indigenous footpaths, and was extended by Hudson's Bay Company trappers in the 1830s. Its length was increased by "Forty-Niners" during the California Gold Rush.
After the discovery of an important gold strike near today's Yreka, California, in 1851, prospectors flooded the area. This was described in detail by Joaquin Miller in his semi-autobiographical novel Life Amongst the Modocs.
In the mid-1880s, the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad along the Siskiyou Trail brought the first wave of tourism. Visitors were drawn by the county's many summer resorts, and to hunt or fish in the largely untouched region. The Southern Pacific railroad, the successor to the Central Pacific, called its rail line “The Road of A Thousand Wonders.”
In the early 1940s, Siskiyou County was home to the semi-serious State of Jefferson movement, which sought to create a new state from several counties of northern California and the adjoining counties of southern Oregon. The movement has seen a revival in recent years.
The origin of the word Siskiyou is not known. It may be a Chinook Jargon word for a "bob-tailed horse" (ultimately originating in Cree),[6] or as was argued before the State Senate in 1852, from the French Six Cailloux (six stones), a name given to a ford on the Umpqua River by Michel Laframboise and his Hudson's Bay Company trappers in 1832. Others claim the Six Cailloux name was appropriated by Stephen Meek, another Hudson's Bay Company trapper who discovered Scott Valley, for a crossing on the Klamath River near Hornbrook.
The county is home to the Black Bear Ranch, a commune started in 1968 with the slogan "Free Land for free people."
On September 4, 2013, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to secede from the State of California.[7]
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 6,347 square miles (16,440 km2), of which 6,278 square miles (16,260 km2) is land and 69 square miles (180 km2) (1.1%) is water.[8] It is the fifth-largest county by area in California.[citation needed]
Siskiyou County is geographically diverse. From towering Mount Shasta (elev. 14,179 ft (4,322 m)) near the center of the county, to lakes and dense forests, as well as desert, chaparral, and memorable waterfalls, the county is home to world-famous trout-fishing rivers and streams, such as the Sacramento and McCloud rivers. The county is dotted as well with lakes and reservoirs,[9] such as Castle Lake and Lake Siskiyou. Mount Shasta itself has a winter sports center. Pastoral Scott Valley in the western part of the county has many wide, tree-lined meadows, supporting large cattle ranches. The basins of northeastern Siskiyou County, including Butte Valley, Lower Klamath and Tule Lake basins, have some of the deepest and richest soils in the state, producing alfalfa, potatoes, horseradish, and brewing barley. Butte Valley nurseries are the leading source of premium strawberry plants in North America. Much of the county is densely forested with pine, fir, incense-cedar, oak, and madrone; Siskiyou County is also home to the rare Baker's Cypress Tree, Cupressus bakeri, which grows in only eleven scattered locations in the world, five of which are in Siskiyou County. The county's natural resources are most often used these days for skiing, snowboarding, hiking, mountain biking, camping, and wilderness recreation, as historic logging practices have been largely discontinued due to Federal and State environmental regulations. The county's water is viewed as sufficiently pure and abundant that the county is a source of significant amounts of bottled water, distributed throughout the country. A large Crystal Geyser plant is at the base of Mt. Shasta, near Weed.
Flora and fauna
Substantial amounts of the county are forested within the Siskiyou and Cascade Ranges, including significant oak woodland and mixed conifer forests. Siskiyou County is the northern extent of the range for California Buckeye,[10] a widespread California endemic. The Klamath National Forest occupies 1,700,000 acres (6,900 km2) of land which includes elements in Siskiyou County as well as Jackson County, Oregon.[11]
Adjacent counties
- Josephine County, Oregon - northwest
- Jackson County, Oregon - north
- Klamath County, Oregon - northeast
- Modoc County - east
- Shasta County - southeast
- Trinity County - south
- Humboldt County - southwest
- Del Norte County - west
National protected areas
- Butte Valley National Grassland
- Klamath National Forest (part)
- Lava Beds National Monument (part)
- Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge (part)
- Modoc National Forest (part)
- Rogue River National Forest (part)
- Shasta National Forest (part)
- Six Rivers National Forest (part)
- Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge (part)
- Tule Lake Unit, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument (part)
Transportation
Major highways
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
Public transportation
Siskiyou Transit And General Express (STAGE)[12] operates buses connecting the more populated areas of the county. Amtrak trains stop in Dunsmuir. Amtrak Thruway formerly operated between Sacramento and Medford, OR, with stops in Yreka, Weed, Mount Shasta, and Dunsmuir, for passengers connecting to and from Amtrak trains in Sacramento or Stockton; this service was discontinued in 2009. Greyhound buses pass through the county on Interstate 5 with a stop in Weed.
Airports
Siskiyou County owns and operates Butte Valley Airport, Happy Camp Airport, Scott Valley Airport, Siskiyou County Airport and Weed Airport (all general aviation). Dunsmuir Municipal-Mott Airport and Montague-Yreka Rohrer Field are also within the county.
The closest airports for commercial domestic plane departures are Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport north of the county in Medford, Oregon, Crater Lake–Klamath Regional Airport, northeast of the county in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Redding Municipal Airport south of the county in Redding, California.
Politics
Voter registration statistics
| Population and registered voters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total population[13] | 44,687 | |
| Registered voters[14][note 1] | 25,582 | 57.2% |
| Democratic[14] | 8,253 | 32.3% |
| Republican[14] | 10,458 | 40.9% |
| Democratic–Republican spread[14] | -2,205 | -8.6% |
| Independent[14] | 1,126 | 4.4% |
| Green[14] | 196 | 0.8% |
| Libertarian[14] | 264 | 1.0% |
| Peace and Freedom[14] | 89 | 0.3% |
| Americans Elect[14] | 1 | 0.0% |
| Other[14] | 57 | 0.2% |
| No party preference[14] | 5,138 | 20.1% |
Cities by population and voter registration
| Cities by population and voter registration | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | Population[13] | Registered voters[14] [note 1] |
Democratic[14] | Republican[14] | D–R spread[14] | Other[14] | No party preference[14] |
| Dorris | 872 | 42.5% | 30.5% | 42.3% | -11.8% | 8.4% | 22.4% |
| Dunsmuir | 1,663 | 56.2% | 41.5% | 24.5% | +17.0% | 13.7% | 24.6% |
| Etna | 721 | 58.5% | 29.1% | 46.0% | -16.9% | 9.7% | 18.7% |
| Fort Jones | 595 | 63.5% | 30.4% | 44.4% | -14.0% | 10.1% | 18.8% |
| Montague | 1,510 | 47.8% | 24.8% | 44.6% | -19.8% | 12.3% | 23.8% |
| Mount Shasta | 3,411 | 59.8% | 42.6% | 25.3% | +17.3% | 10.4% | 25.3% |
| Tulelake | 981 | 24.9% | 22.5% | 54.5% | -32.0% | 8.6% | 18.4% |
| Weed | 2,947 | 44.8% | 45.6% | 24.0% | +21.6% | 14.5% | 21.7% |
| Yreka | 7,696 | 52.3% | 30.8% | 42.5% | -11.7% | 11.0% | 20.3% |
Overview
Siskiyou is a strongly Republican county in Presidential and congressional elections. The last Democrat to win a majority in the county was Lyndon Johnson in 1964; however, Bill Clinton won a plurality of votes in 1992.
| Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 2020 | 13,290 | 56.62% | 9,593 | 40.87% | 589 | 2.51% |
| 2016 | 11,341 | 55.34% | 7,234 | 35.30% | 1,918 | 9.36% |
| 2012 | 11,077 | 55.40% | 8,046 | 40.24% | 870 | 4.35% |
| 2008 | 11,520 | 53.42% | 9,292 | 43.09% | 752 | 3.49% |
| 2004 | 12,673 | 60.64% | 7,880 | 37.71% | 346 | 1.66% |
| 2000 | 12,198 | 61.55% | 6,323 | 31.90% | 1,298 | 6.55% |
| 1996 | 8,653 | 47.30% | 7,022 | 38.39% | 2,618 | 14.31% |
| 1992 | 6,660 | 32.21% | 8,254 | 39.91% | 5,765 | 27.88% |
| 1988 | 9,056 | 50.88% | 8,365 | 47.00% | 376 | 2.11% |
| 1984 | 10,544 | 58.25% | 7,130 | 39.39% | 427 | 2.36% |
| 1980 | 9,331 | 55.75% | 5,664 | 33.84% | 1,743 | 10.41% |
| 1976 | 7,070 | 48.37% | 7,060 | 48.31% | 485 | 3.32% |
| 1972 | 7,563 | 51.46% | 6,434 | 43.78% | 699 | 4.76% |
| 1968 | 6,334 | 46.13% | 6,260 | 45.59% | 1,138 | 8.29% |