Central California, sometimes referenced as Mid-State, is an area of California south of the San Francisco Bay Area and north of Southern California. It includes the southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley south of the San Joaquin River Delta, the Central Coast and central hills of the California Coast Ranges, and the foothills and mountain areas of the central Sierra Nevada.
Central California is generally considered a sub-region within Northern California. Both have their southern boundary where they meet Southern California at either the Tehachapi Mountains or the county lines which cross the state west to east below Kern and San Luis Obispo Counties. Central California is considered to be west of the crest of the Sierra Nevada. (East of the Sierras is Eastern California.)
The largest cities (over 50,000 population) in the region are Fresno, Modesto, Salinas, Visalia, Clovis, Merced, Turlock, Madera, Tulare, Porterville, and Hanford.
Famous quotes containing the words central and/or california:
“The central paradox of motherhood is that while our children become the absolute center of our lives, they must also push us back out in the world.... But motherhood that can narrow our lives can also broaden them. It can make us focus intensely on the moment and invest heavily in the future.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)
“I can’t earn my own living. I could never make anything turn into money. It’s like making fires. A careful assortment of paper, shavings, faggots and kindling nicely tipped with pitch will never light for me. I have never been present when a cigarette butt, extinct, thrown into a damp and isolated spot, started a conflagration in the California woods.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)