Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Rio Dell, CA

Rio Dell is a small city in Humboldt County sitting on the west bank of the Eel River, about a mile north of the old company town of Scotia, at an elevation of just 161 feet.

Rio Dell was founded and named by businessman Lorenzo Painter, who coined the name by merging the Spanish word rio, meaning river, with the English word dell, meaning a small wooded valley.

Before it was Rio Dell, the settlement stood on the traditional territories of the Wiyot, Nongatl and Mattole peoples and was known for a time as Eagle Prairie.

Rio Dell's first post office opened in 1876, and for years residents crossed the Eel River to Scotia by ferry - the first bridge was destroyed by a flood in 1905 and a suspension bridge finally linked the two towns in 1914.

Rio Dell grew up as the bedroom community for the Pacific Lumber Company mill in Scotia, one of the largest lumber mills in the world, and it was a first home in America for many Italian and Portuguese immigrant mill workers.

The Italian immigrant neighborhood south of downtown was known as Wildwood, or Little Italy, and during the Scotia mill era it became famous for moonshine, gambling and saloons - a 1928 fire started by a moonshine still burned buildings on both sides of the street that is still called Wildwood Avenue today.

Rio Dell incorporated on February 23, 1965, largely so the town could form its own police department after the county sheriff proved reluctant to patrol what was seen as a rough and remote community.

Rio Dell had a population of 3,379 at the 2020 census, all of it living in households.

Rio Dell has about 1,330 households with an average size of about 2.5 people, and only a little over half - about 55 percent - of its homes are owner-occupied.

Rio Dell has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate that is remarkably mild - no month averages above about 72 degrees - yet it receives around 48 inches of rain a year, most of it in winter.