Snelling, CA

Snelling is a Merced County census-designated place of 238 people at the 2020 census, on the north bank of the Merced River 17 miles north of Merced. It sits at 256 feet on the eastern edge of California's Central Valley, where the river emerges from the Sierra Nevada foothills. The Snelling Ranch post office opened in 1853, changed its name to Snelling in 1870, and took its name from the family that operated a way station here beginning in 1851.

Snelling was Merced County's seat from 1857 to 1872, and the courthouse built in 1857 still carries that chapter. The building became California Historical Landmark 409 and remained in use for court proceedings until the mid-1970s; it now operates as the Snelling Courthouse Museum. State Route 59 ends at Snelling, and the Snelling-Merced Falls Elementary School serves K-8 as the only school in its district. The town's map is therefore easy to read: river, courthouse, school, and a road leading south to Merced.