Sierra City Map
Sierra City is a census-designated place in Sierra County, California, United States. The elevation of Sierra City is 5,407 feet (1,648 m), and the town is situated in the canyon of the North Yuba River on California State Route 49, twelve miles northeast of the county seat of Sierra County, Downieville. A sheer rock peak known as the Sierra Buttes (Latitude: 39.59351, Longitude: -120.64105), 7,818 feet high, is just 1.6 miles from Sierra City and towers over the town. The population was 221 at the 2010 census.
Before the California Gold Rush, only Native Americans had ventured into the area, which lies northwest of Lake Tahoe on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, and which lay between areas inhabited by Maidu, Nisenan, and Washo peoples (Pre-Contact Tribal Map). The area is now part of the Tahoe National Forest.
A settlement was established in 1850 by Philo A. Haven and Joseph Zumwalt, who were also involved with the settling of Downieville (Sinnott). In the Winter of 1852-53, however, an avalanche of snow destroyed the settlement, which was not rebuilt for several years. Ferdinand, Gustav, and Christian Reis purchased several mining claims near the Sierra Buttes and began to resettle Sierra City, which had a peak population of 3,000 during the decade after gold was discovered in California (1849).
Nearby cities include Downieville, Clio, Calpine, Alleghany, Graeagle.