Spanish and Indian place names of California: Their Meaning and Their Romance

by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez

TEHAMA COUNTY

Tehama County lies at the extreme northern end of the great Central Valley of the state. There is a village of the same name in the county, on the Sacramento River, twelve miles southeast of Red Bluff.

The name Tehama was derived from an Indian tribe, but the meaning of it has not been ascertained. Two definitions have been offered,—“high water,” in reference to the overflowing of the Sacramento River, and “low land,” but these may be among those attempts to account for our names by making the name fit the circumstances, a method which has resulted in many errors. All that can be positively stated is that the word is of Indian origin.