Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near Alpine Meadows Colfax, CA

Colfax is a small incorporated city in Placer County at the crossroads of Interstate 80 and State Route 174; it was incorporated on February 23, 1910.

Colfax is named for Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House and later Vice President under Ulysses S. Grant, who visited in 1865 to inspect construction of the Central Pacific Railroad; the bronze statue of him near the depot is one of only two statues of Schuyler Colfax in the United States.

The townsite began as 'Camp 20' along the route of the first transcontinental railroad, and lots were first offered for sale in July 1865, next to the older Gold Rush supply town of Illinoistown.

Colfax was the southern terminus of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad from 1876 until the line was removed in 1942.

Colfax's restored 1905 Southern Pacific Railroad depot, built in the colonnade style, now houses the Colfax Museum and Chamber of Commerce.

Amtrak's California Zephyr stops daily at the Colfax station at 99 Railroad Street, connecting the town west to Sacramento and the Bay Area and east to Reno, Denver and Chicago.

Colfax is mentioned in Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in Eighty Days.

In the 1940s and 1950s the Colfax area was a leading fruit-producing region and the town was known as the fruit shipping capital of America, with historic packing sheds still lining the railway downtown.

Colfax High School serves students from a large surrounding area of the Sierra Nevada foothills, far beyond the city limits.

Colfax had a population of 1,995 at the 2020 census living in 862 households that average 2.31 people, split almost evenly between homeowners (51.9%) and renters (48.1%).