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History · Etna

Etna dates to 1878, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1908 on, and the census since 1880.

1878founded
0on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
7old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Etna’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Etna began, and where its name came from

When was Etna founded?

1878

Etna dates its founding to 1878 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.

First census: 361 in 18802020 census: 678148 years

How did Etna get its name?

Originally named Rough and Ready, it was changed by statute in 1874 to Etna after the local flour mill (spelled Ætna/Aetna after Mount Ætna in Sicily).

Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1861. Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.The full story ↓

What stands out about Etna’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Old housesHalf of Etna’s homes were built before 1961.
★ What stands out · The story

How Etna came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Etna.

Read it all →

The town began in 1853 as the rough-and-tumble Gold Rush settlement of Rough and Ready, which was later incorporated as the City of Etna in 1878.

In 1854 a flour mill was built a mile away and named the Aetna Mills. However, the winter of 1861-62 it was destroyed by a flood and the remaining businesses moved to Rough and Ready Mill near the current town. This also including the post office which kept the name Aetna Mills.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Etna, 1878–1881

Passages that mention Etna, cut from the printed page as they were published.

There was found to be considerable inconvenience in using the name Rough and Ready, there being a town and post-office in Nevada county by that name, and as the name of the office here was Etna Mills, the people began calling the place Etna in 1870. By the Act of March 13, 1874, the legislature cha…
History of Siskiyou County, California1881 · page 214Read the page →
Read the text

There was found to be considerable inconvenience in using the name Rough and Ready, there being a town and post-office in Nevada county by that name, and as the name of the office here was Etna Mills, the people began calling the place Etna in 1870. By the Act of March 13, 1874, the legislature changed the name of the town to Etna, and by Act of March 13, 1878, incorporated it under the same name, sub-

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Etna — Includes the town of Etna and vicinity. Created as Center district February 20, 1865. Changed to Etna November 4, 1873.
History of Siskiyou County, California1881 · page 95Read the page →
Read the text

Etna — Includes the town of Etna and vicinity. Created as Center district February 20, 1865. Changed to Etna November 4, 1873.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Atlas des Aetna furnishes the most exhaustive history of any one mountain on the face of the earth, and Sartorius Yon Waltershausen will always be the principal authority on the subject of Etna. Sir Charles Lyell visited Etna in 1824, 1857, and again in 1858. He embodied his researches in a pap…
Etna, a history of the mountain and of its eruptions1878 · page 22Read the page →
Read the text

The Atlas des Aetna furnishes the most exhaustive history of any one mountain on the face of the earth, and Sartorius Yon Waltershausen will always be the principal authority on the subject of Etna. Sir Charles Lyell visited Etna in 1824, 1857, and again in 1858. He embodied his researches in a paper presented to the Eoyal Society in 1859, and in a lengthy chapter in the Principles of Geology. His investigations

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Etna, 1861 to 1987

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1861Post officeThe Etna Mills post office opens
  3. 1878
    FoundingEtna is established
  4. 1890In the archiveF. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of Etna Mills, Cal. back
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900In the archiveEtna Mills, California Circa 1900
  7. 1918In the archiveUnderwood's Pharmacy 86 - Etna Cal
  8. 1924Post officeThe Etna Mills post office closes
  9. 1924Post officeThe Etna post office opens
  10. 1955On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  11. 1987Born hereAlly Stacher is born here
By decade

Etna, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s–1900s6 items
F. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of Etna Mills, Cal. back1890sF. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of Etna Mills, Ca…F. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of Etna Mills, Cal. front1890sF. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of Etna Mills, Ca…Hannah Cory Etna Millsc. 1893Hannah Cory Etna MillsHenry Cory Etna Millsc. 1893Henry Cory Etna MillsEtna Mills, California Circa 1900c. 1900Etna Mills, California Circa 1900PostcardEtna Mills, Siskiyou County, California Circa 1908c. 1908Etna Mills, Siskiyou County, California Circa 1908Postcard
1910s1 item
Underwood's Pharmacy 86 - Etna Cal1918–1930Underwood's Pharmacy 86 - Etna CalPostcard
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
On the map

Etna on the map, 1955 to 2001

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Etna. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Etna on the 1955 USGS mapEtna on the 1986 USGS mapEtna on the 2001 USGS map1955Etna sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Etna.

Every building

Etna, building by building, 1908

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Etna fire insurance map, 1908, sheet 11908Sheet 1 of 5
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

F. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of Etna Mills, Cal. back
Retake this viewF. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of Etna Mills, Cal. back, 1890s

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Etna’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Etna, census by census

020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 835

Between 271 and 835 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Etna’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Etna’s post office has been open since 1924. Another post office, Etna Mills, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Etna Mills
1861–1924
Etna
1924–today
18601940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Etna’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewF. E. Bosworth Boudoir Cabinet Card of …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Etna’s history

What year was Etna founded?

In 1878, according to Wikidata. Etna’s post office opened in 1861, and the census of 1880 counted 361 people here.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.