Contra Costa County California

If you are in Contra Costa County and looking for something fun to do or just looking for more information about Contra Costa County, then this article is for you. Continue reading for more information about the different cities, attractions, and cultures of Contra Costa County.

Contra Costa, California, is classified as one of the most expensive counties in California but for a good reason. There is something for everyone to enjoy when visiting, from learning about the history of Contra Costa County or even going on an adventure.

Mount Diablo
Mount Diablo

What Is Contra Costa County California Known For?

Contra Costa is a county on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay in California. The population as of the 2020 United States Census was 1,165,927. The county seat is in Martinez. Primarily suburban, it occupies the northern portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The county’s name alludes to its location across the bay from San Francisco.

  • Mount Diablo
  • John Muir National Historic Site
  • The Golden Gate Bridge
  • Alcatraz Island
The Nine County Bay Area California Map - California Places, Travel, and News.
Administrative map of the California region San Francisco Bay Area

Mount Diablo

Mount Diablo, located in Contra Costa County in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area, is a mountain in the Diablo Range. It is south of Clayton and southeast of Danville. It is a 3,849-foot-tall (1,173-m) isolated upthrust peak visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mount Diablo appears to be a double pyramid from multiple vantage points and has numerous subsidiary peaks. The largest and closest is North Peak, the other half of the double pyramid, which is nearly as tall at 3,557 feet (1,04 m) and is approximately one mile (1.6 km) northeast of the main summit.

John Muir National Historic Site

The John Muir National Historic Site is in the Bay Area in Martinez, Contra Costa County, California. It is where the 14-room Italianate Victorian mansion gets preserved where naturalist and author John Muir resided and a nearby 325-acre tract of native oak woodlands and grasslands that the Muir family formerly owned.

The main site is on the outskirts of town, beneath State Route 4, also known as “John Muir Parkway.”

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a bridge that spans the Golden Gate, a mile-wide (1.6 km) strait that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. The bridge carries U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1 across the channel, connecting the city of San Francisco, California, located at the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to Marin County.

It is also a part of U.S. Bicycle Route 95 and carries pedestrian and bicycle traffic. The bridge is one of the most recognized symbols of San Francisco and California, having been named one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Joseph Strauss, an engineer, conceived of it in 1917.

According to the Frommer’s travel guide, the Golden Gate Bridge is possibly the most beautiful and photographed worldwide. When it got opened in 1937, it was the world’s longest and tallest suspension bridge, with a span of 4,200 feet (1,280 m) and a total height of 2,312 feet (230 m).

See also  Monterey County California

The Infamous Alcatraz Island

Alcatraz Island is a small island in San Francisco Bay, located 1.25 miles (2.01 kilometers) from the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. Midway through the 19th century, the island got developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. The island got transformed into the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1934.

Strong currents and cold water temperatures around the island made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most infamous in American history. The prison got shut down in 1963, and the island is now a popular tourist destination.

In November 1969, the island was inhabited for more than 19 months by a group of Native Americans, initially primarily from San Francisco. They later got joined by AIM and other urban Indians from across the country as part of a wave of Native American activists organizing public protests across the United States during the 1970s.

In 1972, the Department of the Interior transferred Alcatraz to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Then, in 1986, it got designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Mount Diablo Lookout Point 1
Mount Diablo Lookout Point 1

What’s In Contra Costa County?

Contra Costa County is home to over 15 cities and numerous unincorporated communities, but only a few of them are listed here.

City Of Concord

Concord is the biggest city in Contra Costa County. The United States Census Bureau estimated the city’s population in 2019 was 129,295, making it the eighth-largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Don Salvio Pacheco II, a prominent California ranchero, founded Concord in 1869 as Todos Santos.

The name later got changed to Concord. It is located 29 miles east of San Francisco and is a major regional suburban East Bay center within the Bay Area.

City Of Martinez

Contra Costa County, California’s county seat is Martinez, located in the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay region. Located on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strait, as of the 2020 census, the city’s population was 38,290. The city got named after the California rancher Ygnacio Martnez, on whose Rancho El Pinole it was founded. Martinez is renowned for its historic district and waterside.

City Of Antioch

Antioch, California, United States, is the third-largest city in Contra Costa County. Located on the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta in the San Francisco Bay Area East Bay. The population of the city was 115,291 as of the 2020 census. Since the 1970s, the city has become substantially more diverse.

City Of Brentwood

Brentwood is in the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay region. As of 2010, the population was 51,481, representing a 121 percent increase from 23,306 at the 2000 census.

In the late 19th century, Brentwood emerged as a settlement. The community continues to get recognized throughout the Bay Area for its agricultural products, particularly its cherries, corn, and peaches. However, since 1990, many old farms and orchards got replaced by suburban developments due to urban sprawl.

Brentwood is becoming increasingly residential, with population growth rates in the triple digits during the 1990s and 69 percent between 2000 and 2010. From 2010 to 2016, the population grew by nearly 21 percent, according to an official estimate.

See also  Placer County California

City Of Richmond

Richmond is a city in the western portion of Contra Costa County, California, United States of America. The city council has existed since its incorporation on August 7, 1905. Richmond is in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area.

During Gayle McLaughlin’s term as mayor of Richmond, the city had the nation’s most prominent Green Party mayor. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the city’s population was 103,710, making it the second-largest town named Richmond in the United States, after Richmond, Virginia.

Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge

Things To Do In Contra Costa County

In Contra Costa County, there are numerous places to see and explore. Whether you enjoy hiking or cycling, Contra Costa County is home to 20 hidden gems waiting to get discovered. Check out the top tourist destinations in the area and start planning your next adventure today.

  • Black Diamond Mines Regional Reserve
  • Lindsay Wildlife Experience
  • Blackhawk Museum
  • Old Borges Ranch
  • Martinez Adobe

Black Diamond Mones Regional Reserve

The East Bay Regional Park District manages the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, a 6,000-acre (2,400 ha) park located north of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, California East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). In 1973, the district acquired the property.

The Preserve includes remnants of three mining towns and former coal and sand mines and offers tours of a former sand mine. The Preserve’s 60 miles (97 kilometers) of foothill terrain comprises grassland, oak woodland, mixed evergreen forest, and scrub.

Lindsay Wildlife Experience

Lindsay Wildlife Experience, formerly known as Lindsay Wildlife Museum, is a family-friendly museum and wildlife rehabilitation facility in Walnut Creek, California. Lindsay is the nation’s first wildlife hospital and a famous family museum in the East Bay region of San Francisco.

The museum’s programs, established in 1955 in Walnut Creek, “connect people with wildlife to inspire responsibility and respect for the world we share.” The museum features several California wildlife exhibits, natural history specimens, and a theater that provides a glimpse into one of the wildlife hospital’s many treatment rooms.

More than 5,000 injured, sick, or orphaned wild animals are treated annually at the rehabilitation center, which is still among the largest in the nation.

Blackhawk Museum

The Blackhawk Museum was founded in 1988 in Danville, California, with five distinct galleries. Its extensive collection of classic, rare, and unique automobiles is primarily recognized. In addition, the museum has four other galleries besides the Classic Car Collection: The Spirit of the Old West, Art of Africa, Into China, and World of Nature.

The facility is within the Blackhawk Plaza shopping center and is a Smithsonian Affiliation program affiliate. In addition, the museum is a subsidiary of the Behring Global Educational Foundation, a non-profit organization.

Old Borges Ranch

The Old Borges Ranch is a 1,035-acre (419 ha) Historic District with four contributing structures in the northern Diablo Foothills within the 2,600-acre (1,100 ha) Walnut Creek Open Space in Contra Costa County, California.

See also  Imperial County California

The former ranch of Frank Borges, Walnut Creek’s first pioneer, serves as the park’s focal point. The Borges Ranch serves as a ranger station, maintenance facility, and residence for rangers.

Vicente Martinez Adobe

The Vicente Martnez Adobe is a historic adobe house in the vicinity of Martinez, California. Vicente J. Martnez built the house in 1849 on Rancho El Pinole, a land grant given to his father, Ygnacio Martnez, in 1836. It was the first structure to be constructed in Contra Costa County. The canyon became named after Edward Franklin, to whom the adobe was sold in 1853.

The structure is a two-story ranch house typical of mid-19th-century Californian architecture. The house’s walls are made of thick adobe brick, while the foundation is composed of roughly-hewn stone.

Each floor is partitioned into two rooms by an adobe wall. Each level of the front and southern sides of the house has wooden wraparound porches. Initially, cedar or redwood wood shingles covered the roof.

Famous People From Contra Costa County

It is always to find out where your favorite celebrity is from or what star was born in your area, so we made a short list of a few celebrities born in Contra Costa County.

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks was born on September 7, 1956, in Concord, California, the United States. He is best known for his work in the Hollywood film industry as an American actor, comedian, film director, television actor, voice actor, screenwriter, and film producer.

Chelsea Peretti

Chelsea Vanessa Peretti was born on February 20, 1978, in Contra Costa, California, the United States as the stunning Actress, Writer, and Comedian Chelsea Peretti.

Auston Matthews

Auston Matthews was born in San Ramon, Contra Costa, California, the United States, on September 17, 1997. He is an American player of ice hockey.

Contra Costa County FAQ

Exciting Facts About Contra Costa County?

This region’s pre-European human history is extensive but poorly documented, and the present county contains portions of the areas inhabited by several Native American tribes. The earliest occupation by modern humans (Homo sapiens) appears to have occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.

However, there may have been human presence much earlier, at least in terms of populations that did not settle. The known settled people were hunter-gatherer societies with no knowledge of metals and produced utilitarian crafts of the highest quality and aesthetic appeal (especially woven reed baskets).

Is Contra Costa County A Good Place To Live?

Contra Costa County provides the opportunity to enjoy the most pleasing aspects of living in the San Francisco Bay Area. The county’s over a million residents reside in the wealthy suburbs of Concord, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, and Walnut Creek.

Is It Expensive In Contra Costa County?

According to the Economic Policy Institute, Contra Costa County is one of the most expensive counties in the nation. To live comfortably in Contra Costa County, a family of two adults and two children would need to earn a combined $125,672 per year or $10,473 per month.

  • Housing costs: $2,393 monthly
  • Food: $800 monthly
  • Care for Children: $1,537 per month
  • Transportation costs: $1,327 monthly
  • Medical Costs: $1,079 per month
  • Other Monthly Essentials: $1,316
  • Taxes in $1,950 per month

References:

Famous People Corn In Contra Costa County: https://www.celebrityborn.com/place/united-states/california/contra-costa

Contra Costa County Website: https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/

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