Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1853.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Red Bluff’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Red Bluff is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #109 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Red Bluff’s overall grade.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Red Bluff’s 4.1 sits above most of its state (86% of California towns have fewer) while its 6 listings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.0 points). Two sources give 1850.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Red Bluff’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Red Bluff. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1905Tehama 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 Red Bluff.
Every building
Red Bluff, building by building, 1886–1912
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 year, then a sheet.
In the early 19th century, the Siskiyou Trail was the main north-south path connecting Northern California and Southern Oregon first used by the Native Americans and later fur trappers and hunters. The first European to settle the northern Sacramento Valley in what was then Alta California was Peter Lassen, who in 1844 was granted the 24,000-acre (97 km2) Rancho Bosquejo tract from the Mexican government near present-day Vina, about 20 mi (32 km) southeast of Red Bluff. There, he proposed to establish a town, but his attempts were thwarted when the California gold rush stole the focus of the settlers he had gathered in Missouri. Regardless, the publicity from his colonization efforts attracted new settlers to the valley. In the late 1840s, riverboat traffic began expanding northward along the Sacramento River. Lassen's initial attempt to navigate to his ranch in 1849 had failed, but the…
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.
In 1850, according to Wikidata. Red Bluff’s post office opened in 1853, and the census of 1870 counted 992 people here.
How does Red Bluff rank for history?
Red Bluff is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #109 of 847 in California. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Red Bluff?
6 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Odd Fellows Building (listed 1976, the first).
How old are the homes in Red Bluff?
11% of Red Bluff’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.0 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1979.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (4), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1915
c. 1932
2013
2012
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