'Northern California', sometimes referred to as 'NorCal', is the northern portion of the
U.S. state of
California. The region contains the
San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital,
Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the
redwood forests, the
northern California coast, the
Big Sur coastline area, the
Sierra Nevada including
Yosemite Valley and
Lake Tahoe, and
Mt. Shasta, the second-highest peak in the
Cascade Range.
Native Americans arrived in Northern California perhaps as early as 5,000 to 8,000
BCE, and successive waves of arrivals led to one of the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America. The arrival of European explorers from the early 1500s to the mid-1700s, did not lead to European settlements in Northern California. The
Spanish mission at
Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as
Sonoma County.
Description
Yosemite Valley in the Sierra Nevada.
Definitions of what areas constitute "Northern California" vary considerably. The term usually refers to the area north of the ten counties of
Southern California, anything northward of
San Luis Obispo County or the
Transverse Ranges, while others distinguish the Northern and
Central Coast areas from the San Luis Obispo County to Santa Cruz County. Moreover, though many residents of far Northern California define their region as encompassing only those areas to the north of the
San Francisco Bay Area and
Sacramento metropolitan areas. This definition becomes problematic for inland regions; the Central Valley is a distinct region in itself both culturally and topographically from coastal California, though in Northern versus Southern California divisions, the Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley are usually placed in Northern California. Division of the
Sierra Nevada and
Eastern California regions into Northern, Central, and Southern California is even more problematic.
Geography and climate
Mount Shasta at 14,179 ft (4,321 m) dominates the northern part of Northern California.
The region is highly diverse, but can be generally characterized by its beautiful
coastline, redwood forests,
marine to warm
Mediterranean climates and, apart from the
San Francisco Bay Area and
Sacramento area, low population density. It is also a land of
wine country, the high mountains of the
Sierras, the southern
Cascade Ranges,
Trinity Alps, and the
Klamath Mountains, lakes, and windswept sagebrush
steppe, in the northeast portion of the state.
History
Inhabited for millennia by
Native Americans, from the
Shasta tribe in the north, to the
Miwoks in the central coast and Sierra Nevada, to the
Yokuts of the southern Central Valley, Northern California was among the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America.
[1]
European explorers
The first European explorers, flying the flags of Spain and of England, sailed along the coast of California from the early 1500s to the mid-1700s, but no European settlements were established. The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown. In 1542, Cabrillo led an expedition that landed at San Diego Bay, and continued north to explore a coastal route to reach the Asian mainland. But Cabrillo died during this voyage, and the remainder of the exploration was led by
Bartolomé Ferrelo, who sailed perhaps as far north as the
Rogue River in today's
Oregon.
[2]
Beginning in 1565, the
Manila Galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish possession of the Philippines, laden with silver and gemstones from Mexico. There, the wealth was used to purchase Asian trade goods such as spices, silk, and porcelain. The Manila Galleons then followed prevailing winds across the northern Pacific, and reached the North American continent typically off the coast of Northern California. The Manila Galleons then coasted southward to the port of
Acapulco in
Mexico, where the Asian goods were destined for shipment to Spain and sale in Europe.
In 1579, Northern California was visited by the English explorer
Sir Francis Drake who landed north of today's
San Francisco and claimed the area for
England; the next official visit by the British would be some two hundred years later.
In 1602, the Spaniard
Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's coastline as far north as
Monterey Bay, where he went ashore. He ventured inland south along the coast, and recorded a visit to what is likely
Carmel Bay. His major contributions to the state's history were the glowing reports of the Monterey area as an anchorage and as land suitable for settlement, as well as the detailed charts he made of the coastal waters used for nearly 200 years.
[3][4] Other Spanish explorers sailed along the coastline of Northern California for the next 150 years, but no settlements were established.
Spanish era
The first European inhabitants were Spanish missionaries, who built
missions along the California coast. The mission at
Monterey (
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo) was first established in 1770, and the mission at San Francisco (
Mission San Francisco de Asís) was founded in 1776. In all, some 15 missions would eventually stretch along the coast from
Sonoma south to
Santa Barbara (and still more missions to the southern tip of
Baja California).
In 1786, the
French signaled their interest in the Northern California area by sending group of French scientists and artists on a voyage of exploration to Monterey, California. They compiled an account of the California mission system, the land and the people.
Explorers and fur trappers from the
Russian Empire established settlements in
Alaska (beginning in 1784), and then expanded hunting and trading down the west coast of North America. By the early 1800s, fur trappers of the Russian Empire hunted for sea otter pelts as far south as San Diego. In 1812, the
Russian-American Company set up a fortified trading post at
Fort Ross, near present day
Bodega Bay some sixty miles north of San Francisco.
The first twenty years of the 19th century continued the slow colonization of the California coast by Spanish missionaries, ranchers, and troops. By 1820, Spanish influence extended inland approximately 25 to 50 miles from the missions. Outside of this zone, perhaps 200,000 to 250,000 Native Americans were continuing to lead traditional lives. The
Adams-Onís Treaty, signed in 1819 between Spain and the young
United States, set the northern boundary of the Spanish claims at the 42nd parallel, effectively creating today's northern boundary of California.
Russian era
As the Spanish and Mexicans occupied California from the south, the Russians, from a base in Sitka, Alaska, were moving down the coast. In 1745 the Russian fur traders had reached the Aleutian Islands and began southward expansion, with a primary establishment at Sitka, Alaska. In 1812 the Russians established Fort Rossiya aka
Fort Ross, a fur trading outpost in what is today northern coastal
Sonoma County. Fort Ross was the southernmost point of expansion, meeting the Spanish northern expansion some 70 miles north of San Francisco. The leader of the Russian expedition travelled to San Francisco for much needed supplies and agreed to marry the daughter of the Spanish ambassador, sealing a peaceful deal to establish trade and a border between Spanish California and Russian "New Albion" at the mouth of the
Russian River.
In 1841, as the American presence in California began to increase and politics began to change the region, a deal was made with John Sutter and the Russians abandoned their New Albion settlements.
The Russian era in northern California was short-lived but remnants of Russian colonization remains in place-names such as the
Russian River and the town of
Sebastopol.
Mexican era
After Mexico won its
War of Independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico initially retained Spain's missions and settlements along the Pacific coast, and continued Spain's claims to territory as far north as today's border between California and Oregon. In the 1830s, Mexico ended Church control of the missions in California and opened the land to secular development, particularly ranching. By the 1840s, there were small Mexican settlements at the territorial capital at Monterey, San Francisco,
Sonoma, and elsewhere along the coast (primarily near the sites of the original missions). The ''
Californios'' (Spanish-speaking Californians) in these settlements primarily traded cattle hides and
tallow with American and European merchant vessels which came to call.
In 1825, the
Hudson's Bay Company established a major trading post at
Fort Vancouver just north of today's
Portland, Oregon. From this headquarters, for the next 20 years, British fur trappers and hunters used the
Siskiyou Trail to travel throughout Northern California, as far south as modern-day
Stockton. Trapping parties (or "brigades" as they were known) typically crossed the recognized border at the 42nd parallel, and trapped in the
Shasta Cascade region, the Sierra Nevada foothills and Central Valley, without official Mexican permission or even knowledge.
[5]
The leader of a further French scientific expedition to Northern California, Eugene Duflot de Mofras, wrote in 1840 "...it is evident that California will belong to whatever nation chooses to send there a man-of-war and two hundred men."
[6] In 1841, the Mexican military commander in Northern California, General
Mariano Vallejo, wrote "there is no doubt that France is intriguing to become mistress of California."
By the 1830s, a significant number of non-''Californios'' had immigrated to Northern California. Chief among these was
John Sutter, a European immigrant from
Switzerland, who was granted 48,827
acres (19,759
ha) centered on the area of today's Sacramento. Sutter built
Sutter's Fort, and embarked on plans for an agricultural empire.
[7]
American interest
American trappers and "mountain men" began filtering into Northern California in the 1830s.
[8] In 1834, American visionary
Ewing Young led a herd of horses and mules over the Siskiyou Trail from missions in Northern California to British and American settlements in Oregon. Although this initial effort was met with suspicion by Hudson's Bay Company officials in Oregon, Young returned to Northern California in 1837, where he purchased 700 head of cattle which he drove over the Siskiyou Trail to Oregon. This monumental task required nearly three months through largely uncharted territory.
[9] [10]
Although a small number of American traders and trappers had lived in Northern California since the early 1830s, the first organized overland party of American immigrants was the Bidwell-Bartleson party of 1841.
[8] With mules and on foot, this pioneering group groped their way across the continent using the still untested
California Trail. Also in 1841, an overland exploratory party of the
United States Exploring Expedition came down the
Siskiyou Trail from the Pacific Northwest. In 1844,
Caleb Greenwood guided the first settlers to take wagons over the Sierra Nevada. In 1846, the misfortunes of the
Donner Party earned notoriety as they struggled to enter Northern California.
Beginning of United States era
When the
Mexican-American War was declared on May 13, 1846 between the United States and Mexico, it took almost two months (mid-July 1846) for definite word of war to get to California. U.S. consul
Thomas O. Larkin, stationed in Monterey, on hearing rumors of war tried to keep peace between the Americans and the small Mexican military garrison commanded by José Castro. American army captain
John C. Frémont with about 60 well-armed men had entered California in December 1845 and was making a slow march to Oregon when they received word that war between Mexico and the U.S. was imminent.
[12]
On June 15, 1846, some 30 non-Mexican settlers, mostly Americans, staged a revolt and seized the small Mexican garrison in Sonoma. They raised the "
Bear Flag" of the
California Republic over Sonoma. It lasted one week until the U.S. Army, led by Frémont, took over on June 23.
[ American Transition to Early Statehood ] The California state flag today is based on this original Bear Flag, and continues to contain the words "California Republic."
Commodore
John Drake Sloat, on hearing of imminent war and the revolt in Sonoma, ordered his naval forces to occupy
Yerba Buena (present San Francisco) on July 7 and raise the American flag. On July 15, Sloat transferred his command to Commodore
Robert F. Stockton, a much more aggressive leader. Commodore Stockton, put Frémont's forces under his orders. On July 19th, Frémont's "California Battalion" swelled to about 160 additional men from newly arrived settlers near Sacramento, and he entered Monterey in a joint operation with some of Stockton's sailors and marines. The official word had been received—the Mexican-American War was on. The American forces easily took over Northern California; within days they controlled San Francisco, Sonoma, and Sutter's Fort in Sacramento.
In January 1847, the last significant body of ''Californios'' surrendered to Frémont, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, marked the end of the Mexican-American War. In that treaty, the United States agreed to pay Mexico $18,250,000; Mexico formally ceded Alta California (land that included all of present day California and Nevada, as well as portions of several surrounding states) to the United States, and a new international boundary was drawn.
Cities
San Francisco is the center of Northern California's largest metropolitan area.
Northern California's largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and their many suburbs, and the Silicon Valley high-tech region. The California state capital, Sacramento, and the state's largest inland city, Fresno, are also in Northern California. Other important cities in the region include Stockton 45 miles south of Sacramento and within easy access of the Bay Area, Redding at the northern end of the Central Valley, Chico, in the mid-north of the Valley, Eureka on the northern coast. South of the Bay Area, much of America's produce is grown in the Salinas Valley.
Educational Institutions
Northern California hosts a number of the most prestigious and renowned universities and academic institutions in the world. Five of the ten University of California campuses: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Francisco, and the newly created UC Merced, and eleven California State University campuses: Chico State, San Francisco State, Fresno State, Humboldt State, Sonoma State, San Jose State, the California Maritime Academy, CSU East Bay (formerly CSU Hayward), CSU Stanislaus, Sacramento State, and CSU Monterey Bay. Of the private institutions are included Stanford University, the University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, St. Mary's College and Mills College.
Regions & Parks
★ Alcatraz Island
★ Angel Island
★ Bidwell Park
★ Emerald Triangle
★ Gold Country
★ Golden Gate National Recreation Area
★ Golden Gate Park
★ Grey Lodge Wildlife Reserve
★ Lassen Volcanic National Park
★ Mount Shasta
★ Redwood National and State Parks
★ Sacramento River
★ Shasta Cascade
★ Turtle Bay Exploration Park
★ Tri-Valley
★ Wine Country
★ Whiskeytown National Recreation Area
★ Yosemite
★ Yuba-Sutter Area
Counties
Major Cities
See also
★ Southern California
★ History of the west coast of North America
★ History of California to 1899
★ Redwood Empire
Notes
1. California Indian Tribes map R.F. Heizer
2. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo: A Voyage of Discovery
3. Coastal Navigation and Exploration of the Monterey Bay Area Gary S. Breschini, Ph.D.
4. Diary of Sebastian Vizcaino, 1602-1603
5. Hunters and Trappers at Upper Soda Springs
6. History of California, , Hubert Howe, Bancroft, , 1884-1890, The online collective works of Hubert Howe Bancroft.
7. Sutter's Fort Historic State Park
8. History of California, , Hubert Howe, Bancroft, , 1884-1890,
9. Ewing Young Route 1834 / 1837 Karen Bassett, Jim Renner, and Joyce White
10. Diary of Philip Leget Edwards Douglas S. Watson
11. History of California, , Hubert Howe, Bancroft, , 1884-1890,
12. Captain John Charles Fremont and the Bear Flag Revolt
External links
★ Museum of the Siskiyou Trail
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