Fort Jones, California
| Fort Jones, California | |
|---|---|
| City | |
| City of Fort Jones | |
 Location in Siskiyou County and the U.S. state of California |
|
 Fort Jones, California
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| Coordinates: 41°36′26″N 122°50′31″W / 41.60722°N 122.84194°WCoordinates: 41°36′26″N 122°50′31″W / 41.60722°N 122.84194°W | |
| Country |  United States of America |
| State |
 California
|
| County |
 Siskiyou
|
| Incorporated | March 16, 1872 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.602 sq mi (1.560 km2) |
| • Land | 0.602 sq mi (1.560 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0 km2) 0% |
| Elevation | 2,759 ft (841 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 839 |
| • Density | 1,400/sq mi (540/km2) |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 96032 |
| Area code(s) | 530 |
| FIPS code | 06-25128 |
| GNIS feature ID | 277519, 2410527 |
| Reference no. | 317 |
Fort Jones is a city in the Scott Valley area of Siskiyou County, California, United States. The population was 839 at the 2010 census, up from 600 as of the 2000 census.
Fort Jones is registered as a California Historical Landmark. It takes its name from the frontier outpost once located less than a mile to the south of the city's corporate limits. The town was originally named Scottsburg (c. 1850), but was changed to Scottsville shortly afterward. In 1852, the site was again renamed Wheelock, this time in honor of Mr. O. C. Wheelock who, with his partners, established the area's first commercial enterprise. In 1854, a post office was established and the town was renamed again, becoming known as Ottitiewa, the Indian name for the Scott River branch of the Shasta tribe. The name remained unchanged until 1860 when local citizens successfully petitioned the postal department to change the name to Fort Jones, a name that is retained to the present day.
The earliest permanent building at the town site was built in 1851 by two Messrs. Brown and Kelly. It was purchased soon after construction by O. C. Wheelock, Captain John B. Pierce, and two other unknown partners. Wheelock and his partners established a trading post, a bar, and a brothel at this site, which primarily served the troopers stationed at the fort. Near the end of the 1850s, the nearby mining camps of Hooperville and Deadwood began to disband as a result of the dwindling stores of placer gold, epidemic illness and devastating fires.
The mines around Scott Valley attracted many immigrants from many parts of the United States and the world, attracted to the area by news of the California Gold Rush of the 1850s. Irish and Portuguese immigrants remained as ranchers in the area after making enough on the gold fields to purchase property tracts in the valley. In the early years of the Twentieth Century, the northern Scott River tributaries of Moffitt and McAddams creeks were extensively settled by the Portuguese. The Irish surname Marlahan lives on after that family received a shipment of British hay seed infected with the seed of a plant known as Dyers Woad. Those seeds spread their spawn throughout Scott Valley, culturing a plant known in the area as Marlahan Mustard. The plant has a beautiful, canary plume in the spring which matures to small, black, hard seeds. Unfortunately, the herbivore beasts of burden will not eat hay in which this plant exists, and ever since it has been a scourge on the ranchers of Scott Valley.
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