Palo Cedro
| Palo Cedro | |
|---|---|
| census-designated place | |
 Windmill, Downtown Palo Cedro
| |
 Location in Shasta County and the state of California | |
| Coordinates: 40°33′4″N 122°14′3″W / 40.55111°N 122.23417°WCoordinates: 40°33′4″N 122°14′3″W / 40.55111°N 122.23417°W | |
| Country |
 United States
|
| State |
 California
|
| County | Shasta |
| Area | |
| • Total | 3.754 sq mi (9.722 km2) |
| • Land | 3.679 sq mi (9.528 km2) |
| • Water | 0.075 sq mi (0.194 km2) 2.00% |
| Elevation | 465 ft (143 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 1,269 |
| • Density | 340/sq mi (130/km2) |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC−8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC−7) |
| ZIP code | 96073 |
| Area code(s) | 530 |
| FIPS code | 06-55296 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0230275 |
Palo Cedro (Cedarwood) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Shasta County, California, United States. The population was 1,269 at the 2010 census, up from 1,247 at the 2000 census. It is 8 miles (13 km) east of Redding, California. The communities of Bella Vista (pop. 2,781), Millville (pop. 727), Shingletown (pop. 2,283), Oak Run (pop. 880),Whitmore (pop. 999), and Round Mountain (pop. 155) lie within a 15-mile (24 km) radius.
Originally, indigenous Native Americans lived in Northern California, including what is now Shasta County, prior to European American settlement. European American exploration of inland California started in 1769 and continued on into the 19th Century. Cow Creek, a Sacramento River tributary, that runs south through Palo Cedro, was a conduit for entrance into the Sacramento Valley by Hudson Bay Fur Company trappers including Alexander McLeod (1829) and John Work (1832). The town is named after cedarwood trees originally indigenous to the area in the 19th Century.
As of the 2010 census, Palo Cedro has a population density of 338.1 people per square mile (130.5/km2). Award winning country musician, Merle Haggard, lived in Palo Cedro for decades until his death on April 6, 2016.
In 1991 a dinosaur fossil, eight bones, found in rock dated 115,000,000 years ago, was found in Shasta County. Prior to the 1991 finding, it was not widely believed that there had been much of any dinosaur life in California during the Mesozoic Era, 225-65 million years ago. Other sites that have revealed dinosaur bones in California include San Diego, Fresno, and Riverside. According to geologists Dick Hilton and Frank DeCourten, the Shasta County fossil found was a "swift footed, deer sized - hypsilophodont - dinosaur, walking on it back legs, roamed the heavily forested northern mountains of what is now California. He had short little front arms and hands that were dexterous enough to gather plant food (he was an herbivore)."
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Wikipedia