24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Weed, CA

Weed is an incorporated city in Siskiyou County, California, and despite its name it has nothing to do with the plant: it is named for lumber pioneer Abner Weed.

In 1897, Abner Weed bought the Siskiyou Lumber and Mercantile Mill and 280 acres of land in what is now Weed for just $400, having discovered that the area's strong winds were helpful for drying lumber.

By the 1940s, Weed boasted the world's largest sawmill, and the town grew up as a classic lumber company town at the foot of Mount Shasta, north of Black Butte.

Weed was a company town for decades and only incorporated as a general law city on January 25, 1961.

Weed had a population of 2,862 at the 2020 census, slightly down from 2,967 at the 2010 census.

Weed's lumber industry made it a magnet for migration unusual in the region: many African American workers arrived after the Long-Bell Lumber Company closed two Louisiana mills in 1922, alongside large numbers of Italian immigrants and, since the 1980s, immigrants from Mexico and Laos, making Weed more ethnically diverse than any other city in Siskiyou County.

Weed is home to College of the Siskiyous, the community college serving Siskiyou County.

In September 2014, the Boles Fire swept into Weed and destroyed more than 150 buildings, devastating several neighborhoods before the town rebuilt.

A statue of founder Abner Weed stands at Centennial Plaza on Main Street, a plaza built with bricks salvaged from his old sawmill.

Lumber is still part of the town's economy, with Roseburg Forest Products operating a veneer mill in Weed.