Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal; Spanish: Norte de California) is the northern

portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties[1][2], its main
population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area (anchored by the cities of San Jose, San
Francisco, and Oakland), the Greater Sacramento area (anchored by the state
capital Sacramento), and the Metropolitan Fresno area (anchored by the city of Fresno).
Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with the Sierra Nevada,
including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta (the second-highest peak in
the Cascade Range after Mount Rainier in Washington), and most of the Central Valley, one of
the world's most productive agricultural regions.
The 48-county definition is not used for the Northern California Megaregion, one of the
11 megaregions of the United States. The megaregion's area is instead defined from
Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east
across Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe-Reno area.[3]
Native Americans likely arrived in northern California in the BC time[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

Contents

 1Description
 2Significance
 3Cities
 4History
o 4.1Prehistory to 1847
 4.1.1European explorers
 4.1.2Spanish era
 4.1.3Russian presence
 4.1.4Mexican era
 4.1.5American interest
 4.1.6Californian independence and beginning of the United States era
o 4.2Gold Rush and California statehood
o 4.3Population and agricultural expansion (1855–1899)
 5Economy
 6Climate
 7Population
 8Parks and other protected areas
o 8.1National Park System
o 8.2National Monuments and other federally protected areas
o 8.3Other parks and protected areas
 9Educational institutions
o 9.1Public institutions
o 9.2Private institutions
o 9.3Research institutions
 10Counties
 11Regions
 12Cities and towns in northern California with more than 50,000 inhabitants
o 12.1Metropolitan areas
o 12.2Major business districts
 13Transportation
o 13.1Airports within northern California
o 13.2Railroad
o 13.3Major transit organizations
o 13.4Major transit ferries
o 13.5Freeways
 13.5.1Interstate highways
 13.5.2U.S. Routes
 13.5.3Principal state highways
 14Communication
o 14.1Telephone Area Codes
 15Sports
o 15.1Major league professional sports teams
o 15.2College sports teams
o 15.3Sports venues
o 15.4Sports events
 16See also
 17References
 18External links

Description[edit]

Map of northern California counties

Map of the three Californias according to the Cal 3 ballot proposal

  Northern California
  California
  Southern California
Northern California 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. 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 region that is distinct 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.[citation needed]
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 coastal area north of the Bay Area is referred to as
the North Coast, while the interior region north of Sacramento is referred by locals as the
Northstate.[4]
Northern California was used for the name of a proposed new state on the 2018 California
ballot created by splitting the existing state into three parts.[5]

Significance[edit]
Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the
world's economic, scientific, and cultural stages. From the development of gold mining
techniques and logging practices 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, the cradle of the international environmental
movement, and the open, casual workplace first popularized in the Silicon Valley dot-com
boom an