Camptonville (formerly Comptonville and Gold Ridge) is a small town and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

(CDP) located in northeastern

Yuba County Yuba County (; Maidu: ''Yubu'') is a county located in north-central Central Valley, California, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 81,575. Yuba County is included in the Yuba City metropolitan statistical area, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The town is located northeast of Marysville, off Highway 49 between Downieville and Nevada City. It is located on a ridge between the North Fork and Middle Fork of the

Yuba River The Yuba River is a tributary of the Feather River in the Sierra Nevada and eastern Sacramento Valley, in the U.S. state of California. The main stem of the river is about long, and its headwaters are split into three major forks. The Yuba ...

, not far from

New Bullards Bar Dam New Bullards Bar Dam is a variable radius concrete arch dam constructed in the early 1960s in California on the North Yuba River. Located near the town of Dobbins in Yuba County, the dam forms the New Bullards Bar Reservoir, which can hold abo ...

Reservoir. Camptonville lies at an elevation of 2825 feet (861 m). The population was 158 at the 2010 census.

History

Gold was discovered here in 1850, and the place became known as Gold Ridge. The name was changed to Camptonville in 1854 when the first post office opened. The name honors Robert Campton, the town blacksmith. It was a significant community in the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

era and a stopping point for travelers and freight haulers along Henness Pass Road, a major route over 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 primari ...

via Henness Pass in the 1850s and 1860s. A plaque in Camptonville says the roaring town had over fifty saloons had brothels and even a bowling alley at one time. However, by 1863

William H. Brewer William Henry Brewer (September 14, 1828 – November 2, 1910) was an American botanist. He worked on the first California Geological Survey and was the first Chair of Agriculture at Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School. Biography Will ...

passed through Camptonville and described it in his journal as follows:

September 10 we started on our way--first to Nevada ity a few miles, a fine town in a rich mining region, then to San Juan North (there are several other San Juans in the state), then to Camptonville, a miserable, dilapidated town, but very picturesquely located, with immense hydraulic diggings about. The amount of soil sluiced away in this way seems incredible. Bluffs sixty to a hundred feet thick have been washed away for hundreds of acres together. But they were not rich, the gold has “stopped,” the town is dilapidated--but we had to pay big prices nevertheless.

As gold mining in the area waned, the local economy depended on the timber industry. When Sierra Mountain Mills closed in 1994 putting 75 people out of work, many people moved away. Today the town includes a post office, Camptonville Elementary School; a monument to the

Pelton wheel The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an Impulse (physics), impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead w ...

, the inventor of which lived here in the 1860s; and the original Mayo Saloon, currently home to a restaurant and bar, and the Yuba River Ranger District Office of the Tahoe National Forest, which is also the headquarters of the Tahoe Hotshots fire crew.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the CDP covers an area of 0.9 square miles (2.3 km), all of it land.

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Camptonville has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps.

Demographics

Camptonville first appeared as a

census designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

in the 2010 U.S. Census. The 2020 United States census reported that Camptonville had a population of 158. The population density was . The racial makeup of Camptonville was 121 (76.6%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 4 (2.5%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1 (0.6%) Native American, 0 (0.0%) Asian, 5 (3.2%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, 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 th ...

, 3 (1.9%) from other races, and 24 (15.2%) from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau ...

of any race were 12 persons (7.6%). The census reported that 150 people (94.9% of the population) lived in households, 8 (5.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized. There were 53 households, out of which 21 (39.6%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 15 (28.3%) were married-couple households, 6 (11.3%) were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 14 (26.4%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 18 (34.0%) had a male householder with no partner present. 20 households (37.7%) were one person, and 13 (24.5%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.83. There were 28

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(52.8% of all households). The age distribution was 34 people (21.5%) under the age of 18, 9 people (5.7%) aged 18 to 24, 31 people (19.6%) aged 25 to 44, 60 people (38.0%) aged 45 to 64, and 24 people (15.2%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 47.3years. There were 78 males and 80 females. There were 72 housing units at an average density of , of which 53 (73.6%) were occupied. Of these, 27 (50.9%) were owner-occupied, and 26 (49.1%) were occupied by renters.

References

External links

Camptonville's Community WebsiteCamptonville Elementary School
{{authority control Census-designated places in Yuba County, California Mining communities of the California Gold Rush Populated places in the Sierra Nevada (United States) Downieville, California Populated places established in 1850 1850 establishments in California Census-designated places in California