Smartsville is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

Yuba County, California Yuba County (; Maidu: ''Yubu'') is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 81,575. The county seat is Marysville. Yuba County is included in the Yuba City, California Metropolitan Statistical Ar ...

, United States, in the foothills of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

. It is one of the many historic towns in California's gold country, and is today a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

. Located at an altitude of , Smartsville lies about east-northeast of Marysville, along State Route 20. The population was 177 at the 2010 census.

History

Smartsville is named for James Smart, a local hotel proprietor during the days of the Gold Rush. In the spring of 1856, Smart built a hotel. Extensive

placer mining Placer mining () is the mining of stream bed (Alluvium, alluvial) deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit mining, open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. Placer minin ...

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlie ...

remain throughout the area. A post office was opened at Smartville in 1865. Due to a ruling by the U.S. Post Office Department (now the

U.S. Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

), Smartsville became Smartville in 1909; this change was strengthened by a similar ruling by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

in 1947. In August 2008, after petitions from residents to restore the original name, the Board on Geographic Names ruled in favor of the form "Smartsville". The town and name change were featured in an episode of '' California's Gold with Huell Howser''. The Smartville Cemetery is a historic

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

Geology

Smartville gave its name to the

Smartville Block The Smartville Block, also called the Smartville Ophiolite, Smartville Complex, or Smartville Intrusive Complex, is a geologic terrane formed in the ocean from a volcanic island arc that was accreted onto the North American Plate during the late J ...

, a co-extensive oceanic geologic

terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its own ...

formed by

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large ...

in the western foothills of the central Sierra Nevada and west into the Central Valley. The presence of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in the Mother Lode

Gold Country The Gold Country (also known as Mother Lode Country) is a historic region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, that is primarily on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines ...

was found to coincide with the suture line of the Smartville Block terrane and the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the CDP covers an area of 0.7 square miles (1.9 km), all of it land.

Climate

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, Smartsville 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 "Csa" on climate maps.

Demographics

The

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

reported that Smartsville had a population of 177. The population density was . The racial makeup of Smartsville was 157 (88.7%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 0 (0.0%)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 5 (2.8%) Native American, 0 (0.0%)

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0 (0.0%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

, 9 (5.1%) from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 6 (3.4%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race were 18 persons (10.2%). The Census reported that 177 people (100% of the population) lived in households, 0 (0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized. There were 59 households, out of which 21 (35.6%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 25 (42.4%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 6 (10.2%) had a female householder with no husband present, 11 (18.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 10 (16.9%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 0 (0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 13 households (22.0%) were made up of individuals, and 6 (10.2%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.00. There were 42

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

(71.2% of all households); the average family size was 3.24. The population was spread out, with 50 people (28.2%) under the age of 18, 14 people (7.9%) aged 18 to 24, 42 people (23.7%) aged 25 to 44, 43 people (24.3%) aged 45 to 64, and 28 people (15.8%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.6 males. There were 70 housing units at an average density of , of which 42 (71.2%) were owner-occupied, and 17 (28.8%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.6%. 126 people (71.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 51 people (28.8%) lived in rental housing units.

Notable resident

James Wesley Rawles James Wesley, Rawles (born 1960) is an American author, former U.S. Army Intelligence officer, and survival retreat consultant. Rawles describes himself as a Constitutionalist Christian libertarian. He presents his name as "James Wesley, Rawle ...

, writer

References

External links

Smartsville Historic Church history
{{authority control Census-designated places in Yuba County, California Populated places in the Sierra Nevada (United States) Census-designated places in California