Northern California
—  Megaregion of the U.S.  —
San Francisco
San Jose
Sacramento
Country	United States
State	California
Population (2010)	14,573,946

Yosemite Valley in the Sierra Nevada.

Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area (which includes the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and the largest city of the region, San Jose), and Sacramento (the state capital) as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers. It also contains redwood forests, along with the Sierra Nevada including Yosemite Valley and Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta (the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range after Mount Rainier in Washington), and the northern half of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.

The area also contains one of the 11 megaregions of the United States, spanning from the San Francisco Bay Area east to the Lake Tahoe-Reno area, and from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento.

Native Americans arrived in Northern California at least as early as 8,000 to 5,000 BC and perhaps even much before, and successive waves of arrivals led to one of the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries, did not establish European settlements in Northern California. In 1770, the Spanish mission at Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as Sonoma County.

Description[link]

The forty-eight California counties within a conventional definition of Northern California.

Northern California, also sometimes referred to as "NorCal" for short, is not a formal geographic designation. California's north-south midway division is around 37° latitude, near the level of San Francisco. Popularly, though, "Northern California" usually refers to the state's northernmost 48 counties. The term is also applied to the area north of the Tehachapi Mountains.

Because of California's large size and diverse geography, the state can be subdivided in other ways as well. For example, the Central Valley is a distinct region in itself both culturally and topographically from coastal California, though in Northern versus Southern California divisions, the Sacramento Valley and most of the San Joaquin Valley are usually placed in Northern California.

The state is often considered as having an additional division north of the urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas. Extreme northern residents have felt under-represented in state government and in 1941 attempted to form a new state with southwestern Oregon to be called Jefferson, or more recently to introduce legislation to split California into two or three states. The region north of Sacramento is referred by locals as the Northstate. Since 2001, the 20 northernmost counties have promoted the region from Point Arena to Lake Tahoe and northward as Upstate California.^[1]

Significance[link]

Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the world's economic, scientific, and cultural stages.^{[citation needed]} From the development of gold mining techniques in the 19th century that were later adopted around the world, to the development of world-famous and online business models (such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Yahoo!, and eBay), Northern California has been at the forefront of new ways of doing business. In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, to breakthroughs in microchip technology. Cultural contributions include the works of Ansel Adams, George Lucas, and Clint Eastwood, as well as beatniks, the Summer of Love, winemaking, and the open, casual workplace first popularized in the Silicon Valley dot-com boom and now widely in use around the world. It is also Home to one of the largest Air Force Bases on the West Coast, and the largest of California, Travis Air Force Base.

Geography and climate[link]

Mount Shasta at 14,179 ft (4,321 m)

Shasta Lake, with 365 miles of shoreline, when the lake is full. July, 1965

Northern California's diverse geography ranges from the sandy beaches of the Pacific coast to the rugged, snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the east. The central portion of the region is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most vital agricultural areas in the country. The Sierra Nevada contains Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially-carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the largest trees on Earth, the giant sequoia trees, and the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney. The tallest living things on Earth, the ancient redwood trees, dot the coastline, mainly north of San Francisco. It also includes one of the largest Brackish-Marsh's in Western United States, Suisun Marsh. The area is also known for its fertile farm and ranch lands, wine country, the high mountains of the southern Cascade Range, the Trinity Alps, and the Klamath Mountains, lakes, and the windswept sagebrush steppe, in the northeast portion of the region.

Lake Shasta, located between the north end of the Sacramento Valley and Mount Shasta, is the largest reservoir, and is the third largest body of water after Lake Tahoe and the Salton Sea, in California. It was created by the construction of Shasta Dam across the Sacramento River, which was completed in 1945.

The climate can be generally characterized by its marine to warm Mediterranean climates along the coast, to somewhat Continental Mediterranean Climate in the valley to alpine climate zones in the high mountains. Apart from the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas (and some other cities in the Central Valley), it is a region of relatively low population density.

Cities[link]

San Jose, the most populous city in Northern California and tenth largest in the United States, is the center of Silicon Valley, the preeminent region for technology in the US.

Northern California's largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which includes the cities of San Jose (3rd largest in California), San Francisco (4th largest in California), Oakland, and their many suburbs.

In recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno and Modesto. With expanding development in all these areas, the San Francisco Bay Area, Monterey Bay Area, and central part of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills may now be viewed as part of a single megalopolis.^[2] The 2010 U.S. Census showed that the Bay Area grew at a faster rate than the Greater Los Angeles Area while Greater Sacramento had the largest growth rate of any metropolitan area in California.

The state's larger inland cities are considered part of Northern California in cases when the state is divided into two parts. Important cities in the region not in major metropolitan areas include Fresno, Redding, at the northern end of the Central Valley, Chico, and Yuba City in the mid-north of the Valley, and Eureka on the far North Coast. Though smaller in every case except for Fresno than the larger cities of the vast region, these smaller regional centers are often of historical, and perhaps inflated economic importance for their respective size, due to their locations, which are primarily rural or otherwise isolated.

Selected cities[link]

The following cities and towns in Northern California have more than 50,000 inhabitants.^[3]

Metropolitan areas[link]

San Francisco

Northern California is home to three of the state's four extended metropolitan areas that are home to over three-fourths of the region's population as of the 2010 United States Census:^[4]

Major business districts[link]

Downtown Oakland by air

The following are major central business districts:

• San Francisco Financial District
• Downtown Oakland
• Downtown Sacramento
• Downtown San Jose

History[link]

Historical events to 1847[link]

Inhabited for millennia by Native Americans, from the Shasta tribe in the north, to the Miwoks in the central coast and Sierra Nevada, to the Yokuts of the southern Central Valley, Northern California was among the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America.^[5]

European explorers[link]

The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Spanish Crown; in 1542, Cabrillo's expedition sailed perhaps as far north as the Rogue River in today's Oregon.^[6] Beginning in 1565, the Spanish Manila galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines, with silver and gemstones from Mexico. The Manila galleons returned across the northern Pacific, and reached North America usually off the coast of Northern California, and then continued south with their Asian trade goods to Mexico.

In 1579, Northern California was visited by the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who landed north of today's San Francisco and claimed the area for England. In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's coast as far north as Monterey Bay, where he went ashore. Other Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of Northern California for the next 150 years, but no settlements were established.

Spanish era[link]

The first European inhabitants were Spanish missionaries, who built missions along the California coast. The mission at Monterey was first established in 1770, and at San Francisco in 1776. In all, ten missions stretched along the coast from Sonoma to Monterey (and still more missions to the southern tip of Baja California). In 1786, the French signaled their interest in the Northern California area by sending a voyage of exploration to Monterey.

The first twenty years of the 19th century continued the colonization of the Northern California coast by Spain. By 1820, Spanish influence extended inland approximately 25 to 50 miles (80 km) from the missions. Outside of this zone, perhaps 200,000 to 250,000 Native Americans continued to lead traditional lives. The Adams-Onís Treaty, signed in 1819 between Spain and the young United States, set the northern boundary of the Spanish claims at the 42nd parallel, effectively creating today's northern boundary of Northern California.

Russian presence[link]

Russians, from Alaska, were moving down the coast, and in 1812 established Fort Ross, a fur trading outpost on the coast of today's Sonoma County. Fort Ross was the southernmost point of expansion, meeting the Spanish northern expansion some 70 miles (113 km) north of San Francisco. In 1841, as the American presence in Northern California began to increase and politics began to change the region, a deal was made with John Sutter and the Russians abandoned their Northern California settlements.

Mexican era[link]