The Fort Jones post office opened in 1860, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1872. Another post office, Ottitiewa (1854), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 266 in 18902020 census: 695166 years
Founding year: the first Fort Jones post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1872.The full story ↓
What stands out about Fort Jones’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fort Jones is registered as a California Historical Landmark. It takes its name from the frontier outpost once located less than a mile to the south of the city's corporate limits. The town was originally named Scottsburg (c. 1850), but was changed to Scottsville shortly afterward. In 1852, the site was again renamed Wheelock, this time in honor of Mr. O. C. Wheelock who, with his partners, established the area's first commercial enterprise. In 1854, a post office was established and the town was renamed again, becoming known as Ottitiewa, the Indian name for the Scott River branch of the Shasta tribe. The name remained unchanged until 1860 when local citizens successfully petitioned the postal department to change the name to Fort Jones, a name that is retained to the present day.
Passages that mention Fort Jones, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Siskiyou County, California1881 · page 213Read the page →
Read the text
By the Act of March 16, 1872, the legislature incorporated the town of Fort Jones, subject to the general Act of April 19, 1856, with boundaries " commencing at an oak tree, blazed and marked, on the north line of the land of B. R. Morris; running thence in a westerly course on the land dividing the land of Isaac Hamilton and widow McDermott, to the land of James A. Davidson; thence
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
head. In the spring he returned to Scott river, and built a bridge, which he owned and controlled for several years. In 1854 he opened a hotel on the trail leading from Fort Jones to Scott Bar, nine miles from Fort Jones, and known as the Mountain House. He conducted this place until 1862, being also engaged in packing during that time. He was mar-ried, September 20, 1860, to Miss
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Fort Jones, 1854 to 1955
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
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