Metropolitan is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Humboldt County,

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 ...

. It is located on McDairmid Prairie, on the north side of the Eel River

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

three miles downstream of

Scotia Scotia is a Latin placename derived from ''Scoti'', a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century.Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p. 698. The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" aro ...

, at an elevation of 72 feet (22 m).

History

The location was formerly a

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

of 25 homes with a hotel and store for

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

workers of the Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company organized in 1904 by owners in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Company timberlands on Slater Creek were reached by a railroad trestle across the Eel River. The timber was logged out in the 1920s, and the sawmill burned in 1932. Most of the employee housing was moved to Rio Dell by 1937. The railway trestle and 62-room hotel were destroyed by the Eel River flood of 23 December 1964.

Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company Locomotives

References

5. ShayLocomotives.com research site (1998-2017) Defunct California railroads Logging railroads in the United States Company towns in California Populated places established in 1904 Unincorporated communities in Humboldt County, California Unincorporated communities in California {{HumboldtCountyCA-geo-stub