Zamora, California

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Zamora is an unincorporated community in rural Yolo County, California, U.S., on Interstate 5 due west of Knights Landing. [1] Its ZIP code is 95698 and its area code 530. It is in the northern part of the county. Children attend schools to the south in Woodland, California; older children attend Woodland High School. [2] There is a 4-H Club. [3] Yolo County officials estimated its 2005 population at 61 and predicted it would have a population of 99 by 2025. [4] Zamora is served by its own post office, [5] and it has a "all volunteer" fire department, reports the Woodland Daily Democrat website. [6] There is one church, of the Catholic denomination [7] 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 at a Zamora testing site. [8]

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[edit] Economy

Like the rest of Yolo County, Zamora is primarily agricultural. Some agricultural industry is present. 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:[9]

The Bariani family of south Sacramento County, and before that Italy, has 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 (0.53 km²) parcel in Yolo County is big enough for 18,000 olive trees and a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m²) building. The company could expand its production by more than 50 percent in six or seven years.
With harvest season coming, the family won't start the building until next year, said Enrico Bariani. They hope to have it done in time for harvest next year. They won't need any new employees to operate the plant, Bariani said, but will hire a labor contractor to prepare, plant and maintain the new orchard.
The family sells extra-virgin olive oil at local farmers' markets, in specialty stores across the U.S. and to a Japanese importer.

[edit] History

According to the Yolo County Historical Museum, many towns sprang up in Yolo County between 1868 and 1888, including Zamora [10], which was previously known as Black's. The plat for the town of Black's Station was filed in 1877. In 1906 the name was changed to Zamora. According to a 1920 Yolo County map, Zamora was in the Black's District. [11]

[edit] 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 forbs and widely spaced oaks." [12]

[edit] Yolo tractor ride

Beginning in 2004, Zamora has been the starting and ending site of one of the Yolo tractor rides sponsored by the Antique Machinery Association of Yolo County. It said on its website in advance of its August 2006 ride:[13]

We will meet at the Zamora Mini-Mart (Shell gas station) which is at the Zamora exit from I-5 about ten miles (16 km) north of Woodland. Be there between 8 and 9 am in the morning. We plan to start the ride at 9 am and will have a 13-mile (21 km) morning route that will take us to the R.H. Phillips winery. We will stop there for lunch. They have wine tasting and sales and beautiful, ample grounds for your picnic, but bring a picnic lunch as they do not sell food. The afternoon route will take a different path back to the Zamora Mini-Mart and is 9 miles (14 km) long. The Zamora Mini-Mart has a deli and sells food and drinks, as well as having a small picnic area. They have a large area for truck and trailer parking and we can park and leave them at the far north end of their lot. We plan to bring a trailer with gas, tools, and porta-potty. There are toilet facilities at the Mini-mart and the winery.
Except for the first and last mile, the entire route is almost completely deserted from traffic. It is on country roads with a lot of different scenery, varying from the golden hills you've seen along the freeway, then on through the flat, irrigated farmland of Hungry Hollow, and back to the rolling hills covered with grapevines in the vicinity of the winery. Those who think that Yolo is nothing but flat and boring will witness many stunning views and interesting terrain.

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