Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Tehama, CA

Tehama is a small incorporated city in Tehama County, California, that was incorporated on July 5, 1906.

Tehama's name is most commonly believed to come from the Wintun word for 'high water,' and a Nomlaki Wintun village stood on the townsite before American settlement.

Tehama was founded by Robert Hasty Thomes, who received the Rancho Saucos Mexican land grant in 1844; the town was mapped out in 1850, making it one of the earliest California settlements north of Sacramento.

Tehama was for a few years the last riverboat stop on the Sacramento River, and when Tehama County was formed in 1856 the town became its first county seat, before losing the seat to Red Bluff in a county-wide election the following year.

Tehama's population peaked at about 2,000 in the 1890s, when it included a sizable Chinese quarter, but a disastrous 1908 fire and the decline of riverboat traffic sharply shrank the town.

Tehama was the last town in Tehama County to go 'dry' before Prohibition and became a notorious center for bootleggers and gamblers during the dry years.

Because Tehama is generally the first area in its county to flood, a city ordinance requires houses to be raised above flood level on high foundations reached by tall stairways.

The 2020 census counted 435 residents in Tehama, up from 418 in 2010, living in 181 households with an average size of 2.4 people and a 73.5% owner-occupancy rate; the median age was 45.1.

Tehama's parks are Habert Park and Belbeck Park, the latter containing an old brick schoolhouse now used by the Head Start program.

The Tehama County Museum is housed in the town's former Masonic Hall at C and Third Streets.