Bethel Island
| Bethel Island | |
|---|---|
| Census-designated place | |
 Location in Contra Costa County and the state of California |
|
 Bethel Island
|
|
| Coordinates: 38°00′54″N 121°38′26″W / 38.01500°N 121.64056°WCoordinates: 38°00′54″N 121°38′26″W / 38.01500°N 121.64056°W | |
| Country |
 United States
|
| State |
 California
|
| County | Contra Costa |
| Government | |
| • Type | Special act district |
| • State Senator | Steve Glazer (D) |
| • State Assembly | Jim Frazier (D) |
| • U. S. Congress | Jerry McNerney (D) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 5.60 sq mi (14.50 km2) |
| • Land | 5.60 sq mi (14.50 km2) |
| • Water | 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2) 0% |
| Elevation | -7 to -15 ft (-2 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 112,580 |
| • Estimate (2016) | N/A |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 94511 |
| Area code(s) | 925 |
| FIPS code | 06-06210 |
| GNIS feature IDs | 1658045, 2407834 |
Bethel Island (formerly known as Bethell, Bethell Ranch, Bethel Tract, Sand Mound Ranch, Sand Mound Tract) is a census-designated place (CDP) on Bethel Island in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 2,137 at the 2010 census. The community of Bethel Island is governed as a Special Act District created by the California State legislature and named the Bethel Island Municipal Improvement District (BIMID). It is a popular destination for recreation seeker, especially hunter, fishermen and boaters.
The landform known as Bethel Island was created in 1860, when a man named Stone reclaimed a tract of the southern shore of the California Delta. The reclaimed land was thereafter called "Stone Tract." Stone Tract contained an estimated area of 6,000 acres (24 km2), and did not become an island until more than 30 years later, when Dutch Slough was dredged eastward to join with Sandmound Slough.
The first post office opened in 1898, and named for its first postmaster Franklin Cloud Bethell. The second "L" was dropped by a rather pious postal commissioner that reportedly felt it would be ungodly to allow the new location to be called "Bet Hell", and took liberties to change it to "Bethel" (בית אל), meaning "House of God" in Hebrew. The post office closed in 1902. A Post Office re-opened on Bethel Island in 1947.
Though it was common for the era to name the post office after the post master, and for the communities to assume the name of the post office, there are some references to the area as "Bethell" referring to the Sand Mound Ranch farm established by a coalition led by Franklin's older brother, Warren King Bethell, Nicholas Harris (Sheriff of San Jose) and James C. Smith. Prior "owners" of these lands were considered "land speculators" and only performed the minimum amount of improvements to reclaim the land in order to secure land patents. This may not be a fair assessment of all, since some did make an honest attempt to reclaim the lands only to be forced out by changes in governmental policy and financial constraints.
Actual "ownership" of the lands was accomplished through a long process of applications, surveys, improvements and Patents, as defined by the frequently amended Swamp and Overflow Lands Act. The first applications for land patents for what is now Bethel Island, Jersey Island, Franks Tract and Webb Tract, were secured by early California pioneers (the patent number precedes the name, and the date of application follows): 80-H. L. Henderon (1859), 81-Jabez Hatch (1859), 82-Elijah Hook (1859), 83-Stephen C. Vaughn (1859), 221-Edward P. Paine (1865), 222-John F. Arnold (1865), 223-John P. Curtis (1865), 224-Jessa Cheney (1865), 225-William Nye (1865), 226-Stephen L. Piper (1865), 227-D. J. West (1865), 250-Benjamin Taylor (1865), 284-Thomas Murphy (1868) and 297-C. C. Web (1868). Through the remainder of the 1860s and most of the 1870s, interest in several of these lands were traded or sold, passing to Cheney (who later partnered with Van W. Phillips), Hatch, Piper and Taylor. Also, interest in some of the lands were acquired by such notable names in the Delta as J. B. Haggin and A. E. Davis, and by G. D. Roberts and A. G. Kimbell. It might be of interest to note that Elijah Hook later helped establish the city of Oakland to be a distinct and separate entity from San Francisco, and Van W. Phillips was instrumental in the creation of the city of Antioch. Jabez Hatch's wife, Mary, was sister to Elijah Hook.
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