California’s ‘oldest little city’ Marysville celebrates 175th birthday

The city of Marysville celebrates 175 years of existence Thursday. But some dispute which date to consider its official birthday.

The small Northern California town was formally incorporated Feb. 5, 1851. But Chuck Smith, editor of the Marysville Appeal-Democrat, acknowledges another date as the city’s birthday.

Amid the Gold Rush that sparked the population of the small city at the confluence of the Feather and Yuba rivers to spike, Marysville was first established as a city Jan. 18, 1850, more than a year before California became a state.

“It was in that period that Marysville was formed,” Smith said. “Marysville actually predates California as a state of the union.”

However, Smith is on board with the city’s plans Thursday, when it hosts a 175th birthday celebration at 5:30 p.m. at the Marysville Elks Lodge, 920 D Street. In fact, Smith will emcee the event, which includes a ceremonial cake-cutting and recognition of local groups with more than a century of history in the community.

Officials will recognize 22 local businesses and organizations that have operated for more than 100 years, some of which connect to some of the city’s earliest residents, said Mayor Chris Branscum.

The city encourages community members to attend the event in honor of all the small town has seen through nearly two centuries.

Older than California?

Smith, who is also a local historian, said the city’s formation — including its original one predating statehood — is the most important part of its history. In the first five years of Marysville’s existence, he said, it experienced growth that could otherwise take decades to achieve.

“That’s because of the Gold Rush,” he added.

People gathered at the headwaters of the Feather River where it met the Yuba River, a point in which steam ships could travel no farther. That was where miners disembarked for the northern mines in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The city, named for a surviving member of the notorious Donner party that traveled into California across the mountain range, has its roots in early immigration, particularly tied to those seeking gold

In time, the rivers that brought people to Marysville proved a recurring threat to its existence, with flood risks arising with winter rains and the consequences of hydraulic mining in the foothills reshaping the river downstream. The levees that solved its flooding concerns also hampered its growth.

Of the first cities to be incorporated in California, Marysville retains its place as the smallest, with about 13,000 people within its borders sealed by a ring of levees that protect the city.

“And that’s the foundation of why Marysville can be known as California’s oldest little city, with the emphasis on little,” Smith said. “Because of those wonderful levees.”

What’s in store for Marysville?

For the people of Marysville, part of celebrating their city’s past involves looking ahead to its future.

Branscum, the city’s mayor, moved to Marysville when he was 3. During his youth in the 1950 and 1960s, the city had a renaissance and held its own in terms of size and significance with neighboring Yuba City.

“Through the ’60s, my adolescent and young adult years, Marysville was the center of gravity,” he said.

In time the city across the Feather River would outpace Marysville, with Yuba City now having more than five times the population of the city it once looked up to. Much of the storefronts and commerce found in Marysville now finds itself in Yuba City.

“I observed decades of decline from somewhere in the mid- to late-70s into the early 2000s and one of my objectives was, let’s get an inflection point,” Branscum said. “Let’s get this working back in the right direction, and Marysville’s doing that now.”

The downtown of today has most of its buildings, but fewer businesses and residents. City officials hope to reverse that trend by revitalizing the downtown area, from attracting businesses to vacant storefronts to developing unused city sites, such as the corner lot burdened with the remains of Hotel Marysville, which was destroyed by fire in 2024.

“Our job the last four or five years has been again establishing an inflection point and making sure the upward trajectory from that inflection point is stable and healthy, and we’re doing that,” Branscum said.

This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM.