Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's 58 counties. One of the 11 megaregions of the United States, Northern California in its largest definition is determined by dividing the state into two parts, the other being Southern California. The region's main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, Metropolitan Fresno, and the Monterey Bay Area.
Northern California is coterminous with the natural range of the coast redwood and the giant sequoia, with many well-known old-growth forests and smaller groves. It contains most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta (the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range after Mount Rainier in Washington), and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. Northern California is also home to Silicon Valley, the global headquarters for several of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, including Alphabet Inc. (Google), Apple, Meta, and Nvidia.
Evidence of Native American habitation in the area dates from at least 19,000 years ago 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 16th to the mid-18th centuries did not establish European settlements in northern California. In 1770, 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
North–south divisions of California
California experienced a population boom during its gold rush (1848–1855), bringing more than 300,000 new residents, with very few of these settling in the southern part of the state. The northern two-thirds of the state was seen as the main part, and was often referred to as simply "California", while the southern third was called "Southern California". At that time, the state was profoundly divided by the Tehachapi Mountains which were a barrier to travelers before highways were built, and remain a bioregion barrier. This geographical barrier curves from Point Conception at the Pacific Ocean eastward through the Transverse Ranges including Mount Pinos and Tejon Pass, continuing through the Tehachapi Mountains including Tehachapi Pass, then cutting northward through the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range to Mount Patterson and the Nevada border. The Mojave Desert and the Great Basin Desert are separated from Northern California by mountain ranges in this definition of bioregions. Southern California in the 1850s was a backwater of mainly Spanish-speaking Californios who resented paying state taxes without receiving state projects.
In 1859, as proposed by the Californio politician Andrés Pico, the California State Legislature passed the Pico Act aiming to divide the state and create a new territory in the south. The border started in the west at a latitude of six standard parallels south of Mount Diablo—meaning 144 miles south of Mount Diablo at the latitude of 35°45'N, currently the border between Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties. The proposed border bent southward to capture more of the Central Valley, then it angled northeast from Old Tejon Ranch to the California border. The new southern portion was to be called the Territory of Colorado because much of its eastern border was the Colorado River. This legislation was signed by Governor John B. Weller and sent to the United States Congress for ratification, but it never came to a vote. Congress was too divided with tensions which would soon break out into the American Civil War, and despite the efforts of Senator Milton Latham, the bill died. However, an east-west line starting at the southern end of Monterey County grew to define one of the views of north–south division of the state.
"Northern California" may refer to the state's northernmost 48 counties, dividing the state at 35°45'N, or it may refer to the portion north of the geographic barrier formed by the Transverse Ranges, the Tehachapi Mountains, and the Southern Sierras. Because of California's large size and diverse geography, the state can be subdivided in other ways as well. For example, the Central Valley is a region that is distinct both culturally and topographically from coastal California, though in northern versus southern California divisions, the Sacramento Valley and most of the San Joaquin Valley are usually placed in northern California. Some observers describe three partitions of California, with north and south sections separated by Central California.
Technically, California's exact north–south midway division is around 37°N, near the latitude of Morgan Hill and Chowchilla. The geographic center of California is at near North Fork, northeast of Fresno.
The state is often considered as having an additional division north of the urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas. Extreme northern residents have felt under-represented in state government and, in 1941, attempted to form a new state with southwestern Oregon to be called Jefferson, or more recently to introduce legislation to split California into two or three states.
Popular usage The coastal area north of the Bay Area is often referred to as the North Coast, touching the counties of Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, and Del Norte. The interior region north of Sacramento metropolitan area is referred to by locals as the Northstate, consisting of about 20 counties.
"Northern California" was used by Tim Draper as the name of the northernmost state to be created by splitting California into three new states. The bill, Cal 3, was prevented from appearing on the 2018 California ballot because of a constitutional review by the Supreme Court of California.
Significance
Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the world's economic, scientific, and cultural stages. From the development of gold mining techniques and logging practices in the 19th century that were later adopted around the world, to the development of world-famous and online business models (such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Yahoo!, and eBay), northern California has been at the forefront of new ways of doing business. In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, to breakthroughs in microchip technology. Cultural contributions include the works of Ansel Adams, George Lucas, and Clint Eastwood, as well as beatniks, the Summer of Love, winemaking, the cradle of the international environmental movement, and the open, casual workplace first popularized in the Silicon Valley dot-com boom and now widely in use around the world. Other examples of innovation across diverse fields range from Genentech (development and commercialization of genetic engineering) to CrossFit as a pioneer in extreme human fitness and training. It is also home to one of the largest Air Force Bases on the West Coast, and the largest in California by square meters, Travis Air Force Base.
Cities Northern California's largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which consists of 9 counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties. The Bay Area consists of the major cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and their many suburbs. Although not a part of the Bay Area, in recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Turlock and Modesto. These cities in the central part of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills may be viewed as part of a single megalopolis. The 2010 U.S. Census showed that the Bay Area grew at a faster rate than the Greater Los Angeles Area while Greater Sacramento had the largest growth rate of any metropolitan area in California.
The state's larger inland cities are considered part of Northern California in cases when the state is divided into two parts. Key cities in the region which are not in major metropolitan areas include Eureka on the far North Coast, Redding, at the northern end of the Central Valley, Chico, and Yuba City in the mid-north of the Central Valley, as well as Fresno and Visalia on the southern end. Though smaller in each case, with the notable exception of Fresno, than the larger cities of the general region, these smaller regional centers are often of historical and economic importance for their respective size, due to their locations, which are primarily rural or otherwise isolated.
History
Prehistory to 1847 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.
European explorers The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Spanish Crown; in 1542, Cabrillo's expedition sailed perhaps as far north as the Rogue River in today's Oregon. Beginning in 1565, the Spanish Manila galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines, with silver and gemstones from Mexico. The Manila galleons returned across the northern Pacific, and reached North America usually off the coast of northern California, and then continued south with their Asian trade goods to Mexico.
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. In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's coast as far north as Monterey Bay, where he went ashore. Other Spanish explorers sailed along the coast 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 was first established in 1770, and at San Francisco in 1776. In all, ten missions stretched along the coast from Sonoma to Monterey (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 a voyage of exploration to Monterey.
The first twenty years of the 19th century continued the colonization of the northern California coast by Spain. By 1820, Spanish influence extended inland approximately 25 to from the missions. Outside of this zone, perhaps 200,000 to 250,000 Native Americans continued 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 northern California.
Russian presence In 1812, the Russian state-sponsored Russian-American Company established Fort Ross, a fur trading outpost on the coast of today's Sonoma County. Fort Ross was the southernmost Russian settlement, located some north of Spanish colonies in San Francisco. In 1839, the settlement was abandoned due to its inability to meet resource demands, and the increasing Mexican and American presence in the region.
Mexican era After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico continued Spain's missions and settlements in northern California as well as Spain's territorial claims. The Mexican Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) in these settlements primarily traded cattle hides and tallow with American and European merchant vessels.