Historical Marker · No. 183
First Seat of Tehama County Government
Tehama, Tehama County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation; Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, Pair-O-Dice Chapter 7-11 and Trinitarianus Chapter 62, 1981
The county took its name from this town, a name most often read as a Wintun word for high water. That was the trouble. Tehama was briefly the head of steamboat navigation on the Sacramento, and in May 1856 the new county's officers met in rented rooms at the Union Hotel. By March 1857 a county-wide vote had moved the seat to Red Bluff, on a plateau above the flood plain. The hotel, later Heider House, burned in 1908, and the town is generally still the first in the county to flood.
What the plaque says
First Seat of Tehama County Government Tehama County's Board of Supervisors and other county officials first met in rented rooms in the Union Hotel, later called Heider House. The county seat remained here from May 1856 to March 1857, when it was moved to Red Bluff. The Heider House was destroyed by fire in 1908. This property is part of original land grant to Robert Hasty Thomes, 1844. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 183 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Pair-O-Dice Chapter #7-11 and Trinitarianus Chapter #62, E Clampus Vitus, June 6, 1981.
Where it stands
40.02641, -122.12142 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Home of Mrs. John Brown — 12 mi
- William B. Ide Adobe — 13 mi
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- Granville P. Swift Adobe — 19 mi