Welcome to the college town of Davis, one of the best-educated and brainiest cities in the country. The city of Davis and UC Davis campus have reputations for being among the safer college communities. Our students contribute to a community that is active, friendly and fun. Check it out!

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, a stretch of land along the Putah Creek (Patwin: Liwaito) was inhabited by the Puttoy, a tribe of the indigenous Patwin people. Although healthy and numerous in 1832, the tribe’s population was all but decimated, due, at least in part, to an epidemic of 1833. Some historians have speculated that this illness may have been a form of malaria introduced to the area by Hudson’s Bay Company trappers, who were among the first Europeans to thoroughly explore the area. By 1834, a small group of Puttoy survivors had abandoned their settlements, and some left for Mission Solano in what is now Sonoma County.

The site of “our town” lies north of the original streambed of Putah Creek (Rio de los Putas), which became the dividing line between Yolo and Solano counties in 1850. Formerly the home of a group of Patwin Indians, the immediate Davis area presented an abundance of plants and wildlife, sustaining both animal and human inhabitants before hunters, trappers, and the first pioneer agriculturalists brought drastic changes. During the early 1850s, livestock production and cultivation of the rich alluvial plains in the West Sacramento Valley were profitable enterprises, and a number of American and European immigrants sought title to portions of Rancho Laguna de Santo Calle, the unconfirmed Mexican land grant upon which most of the City of Davis and the University of California campus are located.

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. It is at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California’s expansive Central Valley. Its estimated 2014 population of 485,199 made it the sixth-largest city in California, and the 35th largest city in the United States.[7][11] Sacramento is the cultural and economic core of the Sacramento metropolitan area, which includes seven counties with a 2010 population of 2,414,783.[10] Its metropolitan area is the fourth largest in California after the Greater Los Angeles area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area, and is the 27th largest in the United States. In 2002, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University conducted for TIME magazine named Sacramento “America’s Most Diverse City”.

Sacramento became a city through the efforts of the Swiss immigrant John Sutter, Sr., his son John Augustus Sutter, Jr., and James W. Marshall. Sacramento grew quickly thanks to the protection of Sutter’s Fort, which was established by Sutter in 1839. During the California Gold Rush, Sacramento was a major distribution point, a commercial and agricultural center, and a terminus for wagon trains, stagecoaches, riverboats, the telegraph, the Pony Express, and the First Transcontinental Railroad.

The city was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border. The river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santísimo Sacramento (Blessed Sacrament), referring to the Catholic Eucharist.

Woodland is the county seat of Yolo County, located in California’s Central Valley. Woodland is located 20 miles northwest of Sacramento at the intersection of Interstate 5 and State Route 113. To the south is the City of Davis, with its University of California campus. The Sacramento International Airport is eight miles to the east. Waterways include the Yolo Bypass and Sacramento River to the east, Willow Slough to the southeast, and Cache Creek to the north.

Woodland has a strong historic heritage, which is reflected in an impressive stock of historic buildings in its downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods. Woodland’s agricultural setting is largely responsible for the community’s distinct identity and plays and important economic role in Woodland. Due to its proximity to major transportation nodes, Woodland has also become increasingly important as a manufacturing and distribution center.