Zamora is an unincorporated community in rural Yolo County, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, on Interstate 5

Interstate 5

Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...

 due west of Knights Landing

Knights Landing, California

Knights Landing is a census-designated place in Yolo County, California, USA founded by William Knight. It is located on the Sacramento River in the northeastern portion of the county. Knights Landing's ZIP Code is 95645 and its area code 530. It lies at an elevation of 36 feet...

. Its ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 is 95698 and its area code 530

Area code 530

North American area code 530 is a California telephone area code that covers Auburn, Chico, Colfax, Davis, Grass Valley, Marysville, Oroville, Placerville, Redding, Red Bluff, Susanville, Truckee, Woodland, Yuba City and South Lake Tahoe....

. It is in the northern part of the county. Children attend schools to the south in Woodland, California

Woodland, California

Woodland is the county seat of Yolo County, California, located approximately northwest of Sacramento, and is a part of the Sacramento - Arden-Arcade - Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 55,468 at the 2010 census.Woodland's origins trace back to 1850 when California...

; older children attend Woodland High School. There is a 4-H Club. Yolo County officials estimated its 2005 population at 61 and predicted it would have a population of 99 by 2025. Zamora is served by its own post office, and a volunteer fire department. There is one Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 church. It lies at an elevation of 52 feet (16 m).

In 2006, the Yolo County Health Department reported a mosquito was found infected with West Nile Virus

West Nile virus

West Nile virus is a virus of the family Flaviviridae. Part of the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of viruses, it is found in both tropical and temperate regions. It mainly infects birds, but is known to infect humans, horses, dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, domestic...

 at a Zamora testing site.

Economy

Like the rest of Yolo County, Zamora is primarily agricultural. The Bariani Olive Oil Co. has built a processing plant west of Zamora, and of this the Sacramento Business Journal reported on October 2, 2004:http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2004/10/25/tidbits1.html

The Bariani received a permit to build an olive oil processing plant near Zamora. The family owns Bariani Olive Oil LLC and plans to expand the business, but its plant by the family home near Gerber Road is too small.

The 130 acre (0.5260918 km²) parcel in Yolo County is big enough for 18,000 olive trees and a 30000 square feet (2,787.1 m²) building. The company could expand its production by more than 50 percent in six or seven years.

History

According to the Yolo County Historical Museum, many towns sprang up in Yolo County between 1868 and 1888, including Zamora http://www.yolo.net/ychm/historyc.html, which was previously known as Black's. Black's was on the railroad and was the pioneer home of J. J. Black, who located there in 1865. When the road, extending northward towards the Oregon line, reached his farm he donated ten acres for depot and grounds and the station was the result. C. H. Smart was the first resident thereof, constructing for his use a dwelling house and a blacksmith shop. He was followed by William Dorgan and Robert Huston, who with his brother Edward established the first store in 1876. The plat for the towns of Black's Station was filed in 1877. A. C. Turner started the first hotel, and Thomas and Hunt erected the first grain warehouse. Among other builders were D. N. Hershey, Ed Huston, George Glascock and John Wolff. Black's Station from the first was an important shipping station, the great farms in the vicinity sending in their harvests to this point for transportation to market. The coming of the Yolo County Consolidated Water Company's system in 1903 to Black's added much to the importance of the place and stimulated business. The new packing plant was finished that year, making the station a fruit center. In 1906 the name was changed to Zamora. According to a 1920 Yolo County map, Zamora was in the Black's District.

A post office opened in Prairie in 1857, changed its name to Black's Station in 1876, and to Zamora in 1915.

Zamora soils

The town lends its name to a type of soil which is classified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as "a member of the fine-silty, mixed, thermic family of Mollic Haploxeralfs. Typically, Zamora soils have grayish brown, slightly acid loam A horizons; brown silty clay loam, neutral Bt horizons; and yellowish brown C horizons." They are found "Along the west side of the Sacramento Valley in central California and other parts of California" and are "used for growing orchards, row, field, and truck crops. Native vegetation is annual grasses and forb

Forb

A forb is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid . The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory.-Etymology:...

s and widely spaced oaks." http://www2.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/osd/dat/Z/ZAMORA.html