Siskiyou County is
located in inland northern California, adjacent to the Oregon border.
Greater than 60% of the land within the County is currently managed by
agencies of the Federal and State governments. These include: The
U.S.D.A. Forest Service; Bureau of Land Management; U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service; and California Department of Fish and Game. These
lands are maintained in various National Forests; Parks; Wilderness
Areas; National Grasslands; National Wildlife Refuges; and State
Wildlife Areas.
Next to the Appalachian region, Siskiyou County is one of the most
ecologically diverse regions in the world. It sites the "meeting" of
several western mountain ranges and the transitional mixing of various
habitat types. Geographically, it has considerable vertical variance in
elevation, hydrological and soil conditions. Portions of the County are
heavily influenced by volcanic forces. Siskiyou County also has several
areas that were unaffected by ancient glacial flooding. Siskiyou County
is the fifth largest county by area and the population as of 1998 was
44,700 which is roughly a 10,000 population increase since 1970.
Yreka is the Siskiyou County seat which was created March 22, 1852, and
named after the mountain range. The origin of the word Siskiyou is not
known. One version is that it is the Chinook Indian word for "bob-tailed
horse." Another version, given in an argument before the state Senate in
1852, is that the French name Six Cailloux, meaning "six-stone," was
given to a ford on the Umpqua River by Michel La Frambeau and a party of
Hudson's Bay company trappers in 1832, because six large stones or rocks
lay in the river where they crossed. Still others attribute the name to
a local tribe of Indians.
The Code of the West, the Realities of Rural Living.
Click here for Demographics.