page_title: Willits, California
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Willits, California / History
caption_attribution_description: Double header with 2-6-6-2 #46 and 2-8-2 #45 on photo freigh at Willits in June of 1974.
context_page_description: Willits is a city in Mendocino County, California, United States. Willits is located 20 miles north-northwest of Ukiah, at an elevation of 1391 feet. The population was 4,888 at the 2010 census, down from 5,073 at the 2000 census. Willits is at the center of Mendocino County and at the beginning of the county's extensive redwood forests as approached by Highway 101 from the south.
  An arch donated to the city by Reno, Nevada in 1995 stands in the center of town. The Arch is the repurposed second version of the Reno Arch, from which the City of Willits removed most of the original plastic panels and of which it replaced the star with the flag of the United States and the slogan of Reno with its own slogans "Gateway to the Redwoods" and "Heart of Mendocino County".
  The Sherwood Valley Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California is headquartered just west of Willits.
context_section_description: Hiram Willits arrived from Indiana in 1857 to settle in the Little Lake Valley. Kirk Brier founded the settlement on Willits's land. Willits was originally called Willitsville. Later, when the post office opened in 1861, it was called Little Lake. The name changed to Willits in 1874. Willits incorporated in 1888.
caption: California Western Railroad double-header excursion train at Willits Depot, 1974
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