West Miner Street-Third Street Historic District, Yreka

The bronze never explains the town's name. It is the Shasta word wáik'a, their name for the white mountain to the south, taken for a camp that began in March 1851 as Thompson's Dry Diggings. Mark Twain preferred a joke about a bakery sign read backwards through its canvas. Ninety years later the town tried a larger fiction: in November 1941 secessionists stopped traffic on Highway 99 south of Yreka to hand out a proclamation for the State of Jefferson, which would secede every Thursday. Pearl Harbor ended it within weeks.

What the plaque says

Yreka Founded in March 1851 with the discovery of gold in the nearby "Flats", Yreka quickly became the commercial and transportation hub for the surrounding communities and mining camps. Yreka's tents and shanties gave way to more substantial commercial and residential buildings seen on West Miner and Third Streets which remain as tangible evidence of the town's 19th century regional prominence. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 901 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the City of Yreka, September 1, 1977.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Site of Fort Jones — 14 mi
• Emigrant Trail Crossing of Present Highway — 25 mi