Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Arnold, CA

Arnold is an unincorporated census-designated place in Calaveras County, set at about 3,999 feet elevation on State Route 4 in the Sierra Nevada foothills, inside the Stanislaus National Forest.

Arnold is named after Bob and Bernice Arnold, who opened the Ebbetts Pass Inn in 1927; before that, the community consisted of two large ranches where logging was the main industry.

The Arnolds' inn served travelers on the Ebbetts Pass route and visitors to nearby Calaveras Big Trees State Park, where Augustus T. Dowd's 1852 discovery of giant sequoias became a worldwide sensation.

Camp Wolfeboro, a Boy Scout camp established near Arnold in 1928, is still in operation today.

Arnold's first post office opened in 1934, and Bernice Arnold herself served as postmistress for a time.

At nearly 4,000 feet, Arnold sees real Sierra winters - the weather station at Calaveras Big Trees averages about 105 inches of snowfall a year.

Arnold's population peaked at 4,218 in the 2000 census and has since eased to 3,843 in 2010 and 3,288 at the 2020 census.

Arnold had 1,526 households at the 2020 census but 4,680 housing units, because so many homes sit empty much of the year - as many as 45% of its dwellings are vacation homes.

About 80% of Arnold's occupied homes are owner-occupied, and the community skews older, with a median age of 57.3 years in 2020 and about 35% of residents aged 65 or over.

The 17.5-mile Arnold Rim Trail, created in 2007, runs through protected forest from Arnold to Avery, and White Pines Park is a favorite local recreation spot.