Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Lewiston, CA

Lewiston is a census-designated place in Trinity County - a Gold Rush-era community on the Trinity River in California's far north, at an elevation of 1,814 feet.

Lewiston was named after Benjamin Franklin Lewis, the adopted son of town founder Tom Palmer; the two ran a gold mining operation on the Trinity River in the early days of the Gold Rush.

The town began around 1850 as a trading post settlement - spelled 'Lewistown' until about 1858 - and its post office has been in operation since 1854.

Lewiston's first bridge across the Trinity River, built in 1852 for pack trains, was washed away by a flood in March 1855; the present bridge on the site dates to 1900, and the river still flows through the heart of town beneath the Old Lewiston Bridge.

Mining around Lewiston was mostly placer work, and from about 1890 until World War II, gold dredges worked the river bottomlands, destroying many fine ranches in the process.

Starting in 1956, Lewiston became a housing and administrative center for construction of the big Trinity River dam projects nearby - a second life that saved the town from becoming a ghost town.

Lewiston sits below Trinity Dam, whose reservoir, Trinity Lake, is described as California's third largest, and Lewiston Lake just below the dam is used mainly for fishing and camping because its water stays frigid.

The old Lewiston Schoolhouse, in the Lewiston Historic District, now serves as the community library, and the town's Pioneer Cemetery dates to the 1850s.

Lewiston has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate with great swings between day and night; the Trinity River Hatchery weather station has recorded highs of 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

Lewiston's population was 1,222 at the 2020 census, up slightly from 1,193 in 2010, spread thinly over 20 square miles - about 61 people per square mile.