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) in
Tehama County
Tehama County ( ) is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,829. The county seat and largest city is Red Bluff. Tehama County comprises the Red Bluff, California m ...
,
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 ...
. Gerber sits at an elevation of . The 2020 United States census reported Gerber's population was 1,044.
History
Gerber was
plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
ted in 1910, and named after the Gerber family, original owners of the town site. A post office has been in operation at Gerber since 1916.
In the early years, Gerber was a center supporting ranchers and
alfalfa
Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...
growers.
Between 1916 and 1965, Gerber was the location of a division point on the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
between the Sacramento and
Shasta Divisions. Situated two miles north of the junction of the West Valley Line to Davis and the East Valley Line
to
Sacramento
Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
via Chico and Marysville, facilities included steam locomotive fueling, repair and crew-change. There were also livestock yards and an icing plant for
refrigerator car
A refrigerator car (or "reefer") is a Refrigeration, refrigerated boxcar (U.S.), a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple Thermal insulation, insulated b ...
s. Following the 1955 completion of the railroad's phasing in of diesel locomotives as a replacement to steam, operations at Gerber were gradually curtailed over the following decade and eventually closed down.
Passenger service continued until 1972 when
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
's ''
Coast Starlight
The ''Coast Starlight'' is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland, Oregon, Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, ...
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 (2.4 km2), all of it land.
Demographics
Gerber 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 ...
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 ...
, 9 (0.9%)
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 ...
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 ...
, 392 (37.5%) from other races, and 102 (9.8%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 582 persons (55.7%).
The whole population lived in households. There were 359 households, out of which 132 (36.8%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 160 (44.6%) were married-couple households, 21 (5.8%) 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, 110 (30.6%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 68 (18.9%) had a male householder with no partner present. 78 households (21.7%) were one person, and 42 (11.7%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.91. There were 253
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 ...
(70.5% of all households).
The age distribution was 297 people (28.4%) under the age of 18, 117 people (11.2%) aged 18 to 24, 259 people (24.8%) aged 25 to 44, 253 people (24.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 118 people (11.3%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 32.4years. For every 100 females, there were 99.2 males.
There were 406 housing units at an average density of , of which 359 (88.4%) were occupied. Of these, 192 (53.5%) were owner-occupied, and 167 (46.5%) were occupied by renters.