Calneva, California

Calneva
Calneva is located in California
Calneva
Calneva
Location in California
Calneva is located in the United States
Calneva
Calneva
Calneva (the United States)
Coordinates: 40°09′10″N 120°00′32″W / 40.15278°N 120.00889°W / 40.15278; -120.00889
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
CountyLassen County
Elevation4,009 ft (1,222 m)

Calneva (/kælˈn.və/)[2] is an unincorporated community in Lassen County, California.[1] It is located 10 miles (16 km) north-northeast of Doyle,[3] at an elevation of 4009 feet (1222 m).[1] Calneva is on the Nevada state line—its name is a portmanteau of California and Nevada.[4]

The town was developed in the hope of finding sufficient water to sustain it.[5] However this proved problematic with the water proving too saline for drinking.[6] This, combined with the farm prices crash of the 1920s, failure of mining ventures and the cancellation of an additional rail line led to the town declining until it was no longer viable to operate either a post office or a station there.[6]

During the 1916 New York City polio epidemic a quarantine officer was stationed there to medically examine passengers from New York, New Jersey and Chicago in an attempt to prevent the disease spreading to California.[7]

A post office operated at Calneva from 1911 to 1919, and from 1920 to 1933.[3]

  1. ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Calneva, California
  2. ^ Bright, William (1998). 1500 California Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  3. ^ a b Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 361. ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
  4. ^ Remington, Frank L. (September 8, 1969). "Take a Good Look at the US Map. Towns Have the Craziest Names". The Milwaukee Journal. p. 2. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
  5. ^ "Land to be developed". The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California). March 23, 1913.
  6. ^ a b Temple, Robert D. (November 19, 2008). Edge Effects: The Border-Name Places. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4401-0146-5.
  7. ^ "State Quarantine Very Thorough". Oroville Daily Register. July 13, 1916.