Plumas County, California

Plumas County
	Plumas County, California
	; Location in the state of California
	; California's location in the U.S.
Founded	1854
Seat	Quincy
Area; - Total; - Land; - Water	; 2,613 sq mi (6,768 km²); 2,554 sq mi (6,615 km²); 60 sq mi (155 km²), 2.29%
Population; - (2000); - Density	; 20,824 ; 8/sq mi (3/km²)
Website	www.countyofplumas.com

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Plumas County is a county located in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. The county gets its name from the Spanish words for the Feather River (Río de las Plumas), which flows through the county. As of 2000, the population was 20,824. The county seat is Quincy.

The only incorported city in the county is Portola.

History

The Spanish originally called one of the tributaries of the Sacramento River El Rio de las Plumas or the "River of Feathers." The Legislature, in creating this county, gave it the name "Plumas" because all of the numerous branches of the Feather River have their origins in its mountains.

Law and government

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 6,769 km² (2,613 sq mi). 6,614 km² (2,554 sq mi) of it is land and 155 km² (60 sq mi) of it (2.29%) is water.

Plumas County has numerous lakes and streams which are renowned for their fishing. Outdoor activities are a major tourist draw.

Cities and towns

Designated areas

Water areas

Adjacent counties

Sierra County - south
Yuba County - southwest
Butte County - west
Tehama County - northwest
Shasta County - northwest
Lassen County - north, east

Transportation Infrastructure

Major highways

Public Transit

Plumas Transit Systems provides local service in Quincy and routes to Chester and Portola. Limited service is available to Chico (Butte County) and Reno.

Airports

Gansner Field is a general aviation airport located near Quincy. Rogers Field is located near Chester; in addition to its civil-aviation role it also serves as the Chester Air Attack Base, a logistical & coordination facility for the California Department of Forestry's aerial firefighting (both fixed-wing and helicopter). Resources include fueling, retardant loading, communications, and some quartering for aircrew and ground fire-fighting teams.

Economy

Demographics

As of the census ² of 2000, there were 20,824 people, 9,000 households, and 6,047 families residing in the county. The population density was 3/km² (8/sq mi). There were 13,386 housing units at an average density of 2/km² (5/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 91.78% White, 0.62% Black or African American, 2.55% Native American, 0.53% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 1.81% from other races, and 2.61% from two or more races. 5.65% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 16.1% were of German, 15.0% English, 10.1% Irish and 8.0% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 95.4% spoke English and 3.6% Spanish as their first language.

There were 9,000 households out of which 26.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.40% were married couples living together, 8.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.80% were non-families. 27.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.77.

In the county the population was spread out with 22.70% under the age of 18, 6.00% from 18 to 24, 22.60% from 25 to 44, 30.80% from 45 to 64, and 17.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 99.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.90 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $36,351, and the median income for a family was $46,119. Males had a median income of $38,742 versus $25,734 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,391. About 9.00% of families and 13.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.70% of those under age 18 and 6.40% of those age 65 or over.

Politics

**Presidential Election Results**
Year	GOP	DEM	Others
2004	61.7% 6,905	36.9% 4,129	1.4% 156
2000	61.0% 6,343	33.3% 3,458	5.8% 600
1996	50.3% 4,905	36.3% 3,540	13.4% 1,305
1992	36.2% 3,599	37.6% 3,742	26.2% 2,608
1988	51.1% 4,603	47.2% 4,251	1.8% 161
1984	56.6% 5,224	41.6% 3,837	1.8% 167
1980	51.2% 4,182	35.7% 2,911	13.1% 1,068
1976	43.9% 2,884	52.3% 3,429	3.8% 250
1972	46.4% 2,952	48.1% 3,057	5.5% 351
1968	37.4% 2,097	52.8% 2,961	9.9% 553
1964	29.5% 1,686	70.4% 4,019	0.1% 8
1960	37.5% 2,015	62.0% 3,333	0.6% 30

Plumas is a strongly Republican county in Presidential and congressional elections. The last Democrat to win a majority in the county was Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Plumas is part of California's 4th congressional district, which is held by Republican John Doolittle. In the state legislature, Plumas is part of the 3rd Assembly district, which is held by Republican Rick Keene, and the 1st Senate district, which is held by Republican Dave Cox.

Media

The primary local news source since 1866 is Feather Publishing Co., Inc. at plumasnews.com, four Plumas County newspapers published every Wednesday.

Colleges and universities

Feather River College

Miscellaneous topics (Sports teams and similar lists)

The town of Portola is home to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum, one of the largest railroad museums in North America. The WPRM is one of the major tourist draws in the county.

The town of Chester is home to the Collins Pine Museum, a building completed in 2007, dedicated to preserving and educating about the history of the Collins Pine Company's logging activities in the Chester region.

References

Plumas County, California

External links

Coordinates: 40°01′N 120°50′W / 40.01, -120.83

This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Plumas County, California. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.