Fremont Landing (also known as Fremont and Fremonts) was a former settlement in

Yolo County Yolo County (; Wintun: ''Yo-loy''), officially the County of Yolo, is a county located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 216,403. Its county seat is Woodland. Yolo County is incl ...

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 ...

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. It was located on the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–S ...

east-southeast of

Knights Landing Knights Landing (formerly, Baltimore and East Grafton) is a census-designated place in Yolo County, California, United States, founded by William Knight. It is located on the Sacramento River around 25 miles northwest of Sacramento in the northeas ...

, at an elevation of 26 feet (8 m).

History

The area was settled by Jonas Spect on March 22, 1849, one half of a mile below the merging of the Feather River into the

. Lt. George H. Derby wrote about the town on his report to the Secretary of War in 1849 and stated, "The Town of Vernon is situated at the junction of the Feather and Sacramento Rivers, and that of Fremont immediately opposite. Each contains some twenty houses and one or two hundred inhabitants." Spect chose to settle at this site because of the potential business benefits of being upriver. Mexican law entitled people to a three league town if they would start a ferry service, which Spect then began. He hired John I. McCaughn to survey his three league town soon after he started his ferry business. The town was named after

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

, who had risen to public notoriety only three years beforehand. During the Municipal Election of October 1, 1849, there were around 300 voters in the area. On April 5, 1850, the town received its first post office, the Fremont Post Office, and the title of

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

. Severe floods during the previous winters foreshadowed the fall of the city. These floods allowed for travel upriver and led to the founding of Marysville, closer to the mines. A legal battle for land rights between Spect and James Madison Harbin didn't help assuage fears of the townspeople. In 1851 the town of Fremonts Landing was disbanded; people moved out and took the town's buildings with them.

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

became the county seat on June 30, 1851. Very few citizens stayed in the area, with only three voters in the September 1855 general election. The post office was also closed, then opened again in the same year. The post office closed its doors permanently in November 1864. In 1870 the town had one house left.

References

External links

* {{Yolo County, California Former settlements in Yolo County, California Unincorporated communities in the Sacramento metropolitan area Ghost towns in California Populated places established in 1849 Former county seats in California 1849 establishments in California