
Alturas Police Department - Alturas, CA
N 41° 29.018 W 120° 32.615
10T E 705078 N 4595360
Alturas Police Station is located at the corner of W North and S Howard Streets.
Waymark Code: WMJN12
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 12/07/2013
Views: 1
This small and plain-looking one-story building is home to both the Alturas City Hall and the Police Department. I could obtain no information on the history of this building but looks to have been built in the 1970s or 1980s. There is a firefighter memorial in front of City Hall memorializing John R. Bonner who died in the line of duty. This building is surrounded by many historic buildings and on the same block of the police department is a two-story stone building and a brick building connected together that was once home to the city fire department. Across the street from the police department is a stone maintenance shop building that looks very historic as well.
Alturas was originally named Dorisville, after Presley Dorris, who brought cattle into California in the 1860s and settled in this area, claiming much land after the Homestead Act was passed. Dorrisville was later named Alturas which means 'heights' in Spanish. The township was incorporated in 1901.
Alturas owes much of its early success and prosperity as an early township to the construction of the NCO Railroad (Nevada-California-Oregon) that connected the transportation of lumber and freight to neighboring communities.
Although Alturas has declined much in population and economy it still provides some good history here to appreciate.