Scott Valley

Scott Valley is a large, scenic rural area of western Siskiyou County, California, known for its vistas of the Marble Mountains, cattle and dairy ranches, and its historic background as a gold mining area, dating back to the days of the California Gold Rush. The towns of Fort Jones, Etna, Greenview and Callahan are found within Scott Valley, as well as many other small villages.

Drained by the federally designated Wild & Scenic Scott River, Scott Valley is steeped in history. At the time of the first contact with Europeans in the 1830s, the valley was occupied by the Scott Valley branch of the Shasta tribe of Native Americans. Scott Valley was first entered by Stephen Meek, Thomas McKay, George Adolphus Duzel and 16 other Hudson's Bay trappers in 1836. Meek reportedly trapped 1,800 beaver from the valley in the year 1850 alone. Meek, who had hunted all over the West, declared the Beaver Valley, soon to be renamed Scott Valley, one of the best places he had ever seen to trap beaver and hunt game, and returned to retire there at the Josiah Doll ranch from 1871 until his death in 1889 at the age of 90.

An early road, an alternative to the Siskiyou Trail, wound its way up from Shasta, California, through Scott Valley to Yreka, California, and then into Oregon. This route remained in steady use until the development of more established stagecoach roads in the 1860s (and later the railroad in the 1880s) along the Sacramento River to the east.

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