I spotted a town in Maryland called California. I’d known about it for awhile. It always seemed odd to have a town in one state named for another, especially one located an entire continent away. So I figured there must be a connection somewhere in there. Maybe it had roots in the California Gold Rush that captured the imagination of the nation circa 1849.
First I needed to examine the etymology of California to understand if the name might have arisen independently. Oddly, nobody really knew for sure what influenced the original California name.
Most sources tended to speculate that it derived from a romantic novel published in Spain in the early Sixteenth Century, “Las Sergas de Esplandián.” The book described a fictional island found east of Asia. Early Spanish explorers mistook Mexico’s Baja Peninsula for an island and noticed a similarity. So they pinned the name California both to the peninsula and to lands farther north. The theory seemed plausible although plenty of other ideas existed too. Then the name spread throughout several parts of the New World.
However, I wanted to know specifically about places named because of the Gold Rush influence. I ignored California places in Central and South America. Those would have likely traced back to the Spanish colonial era. Instead I stuck to the English-speaking world.
California, Maryland
I didn’t resolve the mystery in Maryland completely. Yes, the California in St. Mary’s County (map) got its name from the west coast state. But I never uncovered when that happened exactly.
I also learned that this once sleepy hamlet had been growing rapidly in recent years due to its proximity to adjacent Naval Air Station Patuxent River while also becoming popular with commuters to Washington, DC. It experienced an explosive 25% population growth in the previous decade, now approaching twelve thousand residents. That recent surge probably made it the largest U.S. California outside of the state of California.
This same general area made an appearance in Twelve Mile Circle about three years ago in Three Notches for an entirely different reason.
California, Pennsylvania
The California in Pennsylvania (map) sparked similar déjà vu. I knew I’d encountered the place before during my writings. Sure enough, the local university — California University of Pennsylvania — appeared in a 12MC article called Résumé Bait and Switch a couple of years ago. I’d even speculated on the potential Gold Rush nature of its name. The conjecture proved true; the borough of California confirmed it:
“California Borough is a community of approximately 5200 people that covers nearly 13 square miles of land. California was founded in 1849 and incorporated as a Borough in 1853. It is named after the state of California because the town’s founding coincided with the California Gold Rush of 1849. Naming the town after the state was meant to symbolize our town’s future growth and prosperity.”
That seemed pretty definitive.
California, Missouri
The third largest non-California California sat in the state of Missouri (map). It also had the distinction of being the seat of local government for Moniteau County. This California derived its name from its west coast cousin as one would expect. However, I’d have to call it a near-miss on the Gold Rush connection. It actually predated the Gold Rush by a couple of years.
“California, county seat of Moniteau county, …was first called Boonsborough but by act January 25, 1847, changed to California. The new country on the Pacific Coast was just then attracting attention and the overland railroad was being agitated and during this agitation the name was given for the state of California”
The name change may have had something to do with a Post Office issue; the original name already marked another Missouri town.
California, Cincinnati, Ohio
Most of the other towns of California were nothing more than flyspecks. There was one former town however, now a neighborhood within Cincinnati that seemed to have some significance (map). The village claimed a Gold Rush derivation, although indirectly.
“In the year of the Gold Rush, three friends… shook off the desire to become gold miners and decided instead to make money in an ‘easier’ way. Their idea was to lay off a town that would become one of the greatest industrial cities along the Ohio River… Unfortunately, their dreams were never fully realized and California was to remain a small rivertown until it was later annexed by Cincinnati in 1909.”
California eventually packed a lot of activities within its tiny neighborhood boundaries including a golf course, a nature preserve and an amusement park. It was also the city of Cincinnati’s southernmost point.
Farther Afield
I did discover a couple of California place names in English-speaking countries outside of the United States with potential Gold Rush connections. The larger was California Gulley (map), a suburb near Bendigo in Victoria, Australia. Bindigo gained its renown for its goldfield.
“People came from across the world to seek their fortune in Bendigo in the mid to late 1800’s. Alluvial gold was discovered along the banks of the Bendigo Creek in 1851 and resulted in a major gold rush… In Christmas 1851 there were 800 people on the field and by the following June, 20,000 diggers had arrived in the alluvial field. Alluvial gold production was dominant in the first ten years of the field to 1860 and is estimated to account for up to four million ounces or almost one fifth of the total gold won from the Bendigo goldfield.”
It seemed logical that an area on the outskirts of Bendigo became California Gully given the timing of the Bendigo Gold Rush. It happened just a couple of years after a similar rush in the United States.
There was also a California in England, an area within Derby (map) in Derbyshire. The etymology was unclear although speculation existed that it may have had ties somehow to the California Gold Rush.
My search showed that many California place names did seem to draw their influence from the state of California in the United States. Connections to the Gold Rush often existed, although not ubiquitously.
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