Central California | |
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Region of California | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
Region | Central California |
Highest elevation | 14,505 ft (4,421 m) |
Lowest elevation | −13 ft (−4 m) |
Time zone | Pacific Standard Time |
• Summer (DST) | Pacific Daylight Time |
Area code(s) | 209, 559, 661, 805, 831 |
Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the U.S. state of California, north of Southern California (which includes Los Angeles and San Diego) and south of Northern California (which includes San Francisco and San Jose). It includes the northern portion of the San Joaquin Valley (which itself is the southern portion of the Central Valley, beginning at the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta), part of the Central Coast, the central hills of the California Coast Ranges and the foothills and mountain areas of the central Sierra Nevada.
Central California is considered to be west of the crest of the Sierra Nevada. East of the Sierra is Eastern California. The largest cities in the region (over 50,000 population), from most to least populous, are Sacramento, Fresno , Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto, Elk Grove, Salinas, Visalia, Clovis, Merced, Santa Cruz, Turlock, Madera, Lodi, Tulare, Porterville, Hanford and Delano. Over time, droughts and wildfires have increased in frequency and become less seasonal and more year-round, further straining the region's water security. [1] [2] [3]
Central California can have widely varying definitions depending on the context. Some divide the state by lines of latitude making northern, central and southern sections. Others divide by county lines or watershed boundaries. Some definitions include more of the San Joaquin Valley and even larger portions of the Central Valley. Some have less or none of Central Coast.
Central California being in the middle of the state starts at 36 parallel north (exact dividing line of Central and Southern California) and ending around 38°30 parallel north (Sacramento County)
The rough definition of Central California includes some or all of the following counties:
Counties That Are Considered Central California (Depending on who you ask)
Area cities and towns listed below are major regional centers or county seats.
The following regions are entirely contained within central California:
The following regions are partially contained within central California:
Central California has opened two new universities recently, one in each of the past two decades.
The University of California has one campus in the region. University of California, Merced opened on a newly constructed site on the east side of Merced in 2005.
The California State University system has four campuses in the region. California State University, Monterey Bay opened on the site of the former Fort Ord army base in 1994. California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock opened in 1957. California State University, Fresno opened in 1911.
The Monterey Institute of International Studies is a graduate school that offers eleven master's degree programs in international policy, international management, language teaching, and translation and interpretation. The Monterey Institute of International Studies is a graduate school of Middlebury College.
San Joaquin College of Law is a private, nonprofit law school located in Clovis.
Fresno Pacific University is a private university in Fresno.
The Naval Postgraduate School and Defense Language Institute are located in Monterey.
The following community college campus sites are in the region: [4]
There are no community colleges in Mariposa or San Benito Counties.
Most of the major highways in the region run north-south around the mountains. Interstate 5 and State Route 99 are the primary highways in the San Joaquin Valley. US 101 and State Route 1 are the major coastal highways.
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Passenger rail in the region consists of the Amtrak long-haul Coast Starlight and the regional San Joaquins routes.
The California High-Speed Rail system is under construction between Merced and Bakersfield. In Central California, the system will have stations in Merced, Madera, Fresno, and the Kings–Tulare area. Planning is underway to extend the initial line to San Francisco/San Jose and Los Angeles.
Freight rail is served by commercial railroads. Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway operate mainline freight through the region in the Central Valley.
Major and regional airline services are available at Fresno Yosemite International Airport and Monterey Regional Airport. Regional airline service is also available at Merced Regional Airport.
General Aviation airports exist in all ten counties. The largest are former military bases converted to civilian airports
An active military air base is at Naval Air Station Lemoore in Kings County, and the 144th Fighter Wing is stationed at Fresno Air National Guard Base in Fresno County.
Variations on significant/influential definitions of the term central California are collected in this section.
The following counties are self-described as being in central California or central within California:
The following are definitions by influential organizations:
The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California. It is 40–60 mi (60–100 km) wide and runs approximately 450 mi (720 km) from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast of the state. It covers approximately 18,000 sq mi (47,000 km2), about 11% of California's land area. The valley is bounded by the Coast Ranges to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east.
Northern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's 58 counties. Northern California in its largest definition is determined by dividing the state into two regions, the other being Southern California. The main northern population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, the Redding, California, area south of the Cascade Range, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. Northern California is also home to Silicon Valley, the global headquarters for some of the most powerful tech and Internet-related companies in the world, including Meta, Apple, Google, and Nvidia.
The San Joaquin Valley is the southern half of California's Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an important source of food, producing a significant part of California's agricultural output.
The State Scenic Highway System in the U.S. state of California is a list of highways, mainly state highways, that have been designated by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as scenic highways. They are marked by the state flower, a California poppy, inside either a rectangle for state-maintained highways or a pentagon for county highways.
The Diocese of Fresno (Latin: Dioecesis Fresnensis is a diocese of the Latin Church in the Central Valley of California in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Area code 559 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for the central San Joaquin Valley in central California. The numbering plan area includes the counties of Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare, an area largely coextensive with the Fresno and Visalia-Porterville metropolitan areas. The area code was placed in service in 1998, when its services area was split from that of area code 209.
The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies and is part of the Western Region Division of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about 371 miles (597 km) of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's Central Valley/San Joaquin Valley around Fresno and Bakersfield. The SJVR has trackage rights over Union Pacific between Fresno, Goshen, Famoso, Bakersfield and Algoso. The SJVR also operated for the Tulare Valley Railroad (TVRR) from Calwa to Corcoran and Famoso.
Districts in California geographically divide the U.S. state into overlapping regions for political and administrative purposes.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of California:
The California Community College Athletic Association is a sports association of community colleges in the U.S. state of California. It oversees 108 athletic programs throughout the state. The organization was formed in 1929 as the California Junior College Federation to unify programs in Northern and Southern California.
There are 45 routes assigned to the "J" zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The "J" zone includes county highways in Alameda, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Inyo, Mariposa, Merced, Sacramento, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties.
The Stockton–Los Angeles Road, also known as the Millerton Road, Stockton–Mariposa Road, Stockton–Fort Miller Road or the Stockton–Visalia Road, was established about 1853 following the discovery of gold on the Kern River in Old Tulare County. This route between Stockton and Los Angeles followed by the Stockton–Los Angeles Road is described in "Itinerary XXI. From Fort Yuma to Benicia, California", in The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions by Randolph Barnes Marcy. The Itinerary was derived from the report of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson on his topographical survey party in 1853, that was in search of a railroad route through the interior of California.
The California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) is a freely-available, archive of digitized California newspapers; it is accessible through the project's website. The collection contains over six million pages from over forty-two million articles. The project is part of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR) at the University of California Riverside.
The Tulare Merchants were a minor league baseball team based in Tulare, California. In 1910 and 1911, the Merchants played exclusively as members of the Class D level San Joaquin Valley League, winning the 1911 league championship in their final season of play.