California: South versus North versus North North

        As a resident growing up in "Southern California", that is by Carey McWilliams' definition in Southern California Country: An Island on the Land, by living south of the Tehachapi Mountains, I noticed that northern transplants always mentioned that they were from "NorCal", which quite obviously is Northern California.  But as geography will tell you the absolute center of California lies near the small city of North Fork in Madera County. For those unfamiliar where The County of Madera is located its really north of LA and almost next to Sacramento and east of San Francisco. So if the exact center of California is in a region that is far away from Los Angeles and a seemingly endless commute up the 5 freeway from San Diego how in the world can nearby San Francisco or residents of Sacramento claim to be be Northern Californians?

Wikipedia

         I was recently invited to take a visit to Berkeley's J School so that I could get a feel for the environment and understand what I would be committing to when I accepted their offer to attend the school for my master's degree. And in a few conversations with folks from outside the state it was difficult to dispel their understanding of Northern California after people from the Bay Area labeled themselves as living in NorCal. But as I pointed out if one was to drive north from the Bay Area there is hours upon hours of California driving before hitting the Oregon border. Humboldt County, Mt. Shasta and the Modoc Mountains are the true and absolute Northern California, a Northern Northern California if you will. In a recent road trip to Northern Northern California I basked in the beautiful scenery and walked in the footprints of California legends like Captain Jack in the Modoc's last fight.

Photo by Eriverto Vargas

     I also mentioned that folks in the great northern boundary near Oregon have long ago had their patience grow thin with the pretentiousness that they feel comes from Middle and Southern Californians when it comes to claiming the state.
     We must look at the area that is sometimes referred to as Jefferson and understand the necessity to include the water rich and mostly rural ranching areas of the north. California is said to be divided by geography and culture that is played out in the media as north versus south. The geography of the Golden State split is easier to define by not using a map per say but by asking where the masses of San Francisco Giants supporters ends and where the ocean of Dodger Blue begins.
      By questioning where the borders of the cultural differences start and stop in the nation's greatest state I am asking where do we draw the line? Where can we say definitively that this is Northern California. Santa Barbara is slightly south of San Luis Obispo and SLO is just a jump from Monterey and so on. Folks from the Bay can and should utilize the Bay Area as a representation of their hometown, but it does not qualify them to absorb the northern pristine qualities and timelessness of North North. The following image is a map provided by the State Parks and Recreation agency. Their map shows where the strongest concentration of redwoods begins and as you may notice, San Jose, Palo Alto and Walnut Creek are not located on this map. The first point that is shown here of the northern redwoods is Admiral William Stanley State Recreation 

CA Department of Parks and Recreation

Area located in Westport. The city of Westport, California is located in Mendocino County the bottom third piece of the infamous Emerald Triangle world renown for its harvested crops. 

     So by using the region where the highest concentration of California's Redwoods begins and ends within our borders we can establish that this is Northern California. From Sonoma County to El Dorado County, where California's elbow is, should be just about where Northern and Middle California meet. This should not be confused with the Central Valley, that reaches from Sacramento to to the Tehachapi Mountains. So to give proper credence and respect to the north we should practice proper geographic prefixes when referring to the beautiful part of California that we come from.