Bridgeville (formerly Robinsons Ferry and Bridgeport) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Humboldt County,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is located north-northeast of Weott, at an elevation of 636 feet (194 m). Bridgeville is north of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, with a population of about 25.

History

Originally called Robinsons Crossing, it was renamed Bridgeport when a bridge was built across the

Van Duzen River The Van Duzen River is a river on the north coast of California. It is a major tributary of the Eel River and drains , mostly in Humboldt County, with a small portion in Trinity County. The river travels from its headwaters on the west side o ...

in 1875. The post office rejected Bridgeport as a name because of another

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...

(in Mono County), and the Bridgeville post office opened in 1877. Robinsons Crossing was named in honor of William Slaughter Robinson, a local rancher. One of the first settlers was

Salmon Brown Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus ''Oncorhynchu ...

, a

Merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

sheep farmer, son of John Brown the abolitionist. To rescue his mother Mary from hostility to Brown in

Red Bluff Red Bluff(s) may refer to several places in North America: Places Canada *Red Bluff, British Columbia, a community near Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada ** Red Bluff First Nation, a First Nations band government headquartered near Quesnel, ...

, in 1870 he sold his ranch near

Corning, California Corning is a city in Tehama County, California, that is located about south of Red Bluff and about north of Sacramento. The population was 8,244 at the 2020 census, up from 7,663 at the 2010 census. History Corning had its start in ...

, and bought one near Bridgeville. Mary and her daughters moved nearby, to Rohnerville. In 1893 he moved to

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. The town became famous in 2002 for being the first in history to be put up for auction on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

. It was originally sold for $1.77m but the buyer backed out of the deal only for it to be bought by businessman

Bruce Krall The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

for $700,000. Krall put the town up for sale again in 2006 for a starting price of $1.75m. According to the

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

website, the price included three

cows Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

, eight

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

s, and a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

. Los Angeles-based entertainment manager and college student

Daniel Thomas La Paille Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

, 25, purchased the town on August 3, 2006 from Krall. La Paille paid $1.25 million, the money coming from his own entertainment management work as well as from his mother and grandmother. In an interview with the ''Times-Standard'', La Paille said, " ommunityis very important in every aspect. We all have to live together. Bridgeville is going to be an example. We're going to ... show that we can be environmentally conscious, good neighbors and just create a special little community." According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, Daniel La Paille committed suicide on November 9, 2006. The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the chest. On June 29, 2007, Bridgeville was on the market with a $1.3 million price tag for at least several months. This was the third time in five years that Bridgeville had been listed for sale. In June 2013, Steve Farzam, the COO of the Shore Hotel in Santa Monica, California, entrepreneur, and serial fraudster, offered to purchase Bridgeville for $900,000 from Daniel La Paille's mother. Steve Farzam had his development team visit the town, where they met with the County Board of Supervisors. According to Humboldt County Supervisor Estelle Fennell, Farzam wanted to start his own police force in Bridgeville, for which he would need the approval of the county sheriff. According to one of Farzam's colleagues, Farzam said he would not buy the town if he was unable to start a police department. According to Fennell, the sheriff was adamant that there would be no changes to law enforcement in Bridgeville and the deal never materialized.

Geography

The

flows through Bridgeville. The ZIP Code is 95526. The community is inside

area code 707 Area code 707 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northwestern part of the U.S. state of California. It was created by a split of area code 415 on March 1, 1959. It serves part of the northern San Francisco ...

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Bridgeville has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Education

Bridgeville is the seat of the

Bridgeville Elementary School District The Bridgeville Elementary School District is a school district in Bridgeville, California. It offers classes from kindergarten through grade 8, in a portion of eastern Humboldt County, California Humboldt County () is a county located in t ...

,Humboldt County Office of Education
/ref> and home of the Bridgeville School,Bridgeville School Board
/ref> a public K-8 school.

Politics

In the state legislature, Bridgeville is in , and . Federally, Bridgeville is in .

References

External links

* {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Humboldt County, California EBay listings Historic American Buildings Survey in California Unincorporated communities in California