Wheatland - Yuba-Sutter Wiki

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Wheatland is a city in Yuba County that was incorporated in 1874. It is located on the north bank of the Bear River, south of Beale Air Force Base, southwest of Horstville and the Spenceville State Wildlife Area, east of Plumas Lake, and southeast of Olivehurst. It has a population of 3,548 (as of the 2009 California Department of Finance estimate), which is an 0.9% increase from the previous year and a 56.2% increase from 2000. (The huge increase from 2000 is due to Wheatland being swept up in the housing market bubble.) Its total area is 0.8 square miles. Its elevation is 92 feet. The average annual rainfall is 17.5 inches. The average high temperature in July is 96.3°, and the average low temperature in January is 38.0°. Wheatland's local newspaper is the Wheatland Citizen.

Demographics

As of a July 2007 estimate, residents' median age was 32 years.

66.1% of residents were white and non-Hispanic, followed by 21.2% of residents who were Hispanic.

Of residents 25 or older, 76.9% had at least a high school degree, 11.4% had at least a bachelor's degree, and 3.5% had a graduate or professional degree.

Of residents 15 or older, 54.7% were married, 24.2% had never married, 11.2% were divorced, 7.3% were widowed, and 2.6% were separated.

6.8% of households were headed by unmarried partners. 0.5% of households were headed by self-identified same-sex couples.

For employed residents, the average travel time to work was 27 minutes. The most common industries for males to work in were the construction industry (16%) and farming (10%). The most common industries for females to work in were education (16%) and health care (10%).

The 2007 median annual household income was $48,883 and 2008 median home price was $210,960. 19.8% of residents were below the poverty level in 2007, and 5.3% were below half the poverty level. The 2008 cost of living index was 95.1 (the United States average is 100).

History

Rancher William Johnson was the first European-American to settle in what is now Wheatland. When the first survivors of the Donner Party crossed the Sierra Nevadas on the Overland Emigrant Trail in January 1847, his ranch was the first European-American settlement they reached. Efforts to rescue the remaining, still-trapped members of the Donner Party were coordinated from his ranch, and he was briefly married to one of the Donner Party survivors, Mary Murphy Covillaud, after whom Marysville was named. She divorced him because he commited domestic violence against her.

The Chinese Pyre in Wheatland was used for funeral ceremonies by Wheatland's Chinese-American community from the 1870s until February 1886, when Wheatland violently drove all its Chinese residents out of town (as did Marysville). Wheatland remained a sundown town (in which Chinese people and other people of color were threatened with violence if they attempted to live in the city or to remain in it after sundown) until apparently rather recently, although the policy became gradually less overtly stated in public.

Edward Park Duplex was elected mayor of Wheatland on April 11, 1888, the first African-American man to be elected mayor of a western United States city.

Ralph Haines Durst was a hop farmer in Wheatland and the largest employer of migrant farm workers in California. The Wheatland Hop Riot took place on his ranch in 1913.

Almeda E. McDevitt was a very successful turkey farmer about eight miles northeast of Wheatland.