Princeton, CA

Princeton sits on the west bank of the Sacramento River in Colusa County, where the valley’s agricultural plain meets one of California’s old north-south travel corridors. The first permanent house in Colusa County was built near the present site in 1847, and Dr. Andrew Lull later gave the settlement the name Princeton while seeking a post office. For decades, the village handled wheat, freight, farm machinery, and river traffic. A store, warehouse, flour mill, school, church, and hotel filled out a place that was once one of the busiest stops on the river.

The Princeton Ferry made that river role literal. For nearly 130 years, it carried people, vehicles, and goods between Princeton and Afton on the opposite bank, tying two small communities together when bridges were rare. The ferry closed in the late twentieth century, but the crossing still defines the local map. Princeton Joint Unified School District serves the area, and the 2020 census counted 309 residents. Today the place is a small agricultural CDP, yet its history still reads through the riverbank: a ferry landing, a grain country, and a village built where roads and water met.