Original Counties of California, 1850

In the United States, not a lot of thought is given to counties. For many people, they're simply extra lines drawn inside states. Their power also varies widely depending on the region: in New England, for example, most counties have zero power whatsoever, and are simply created to have convenient regions on a map in order to organize state services on a local level. In California, however, counties can levy their own taxes, create laws and regulations, and are generally responsible for managing all unincorporated land in their territory that isn't part of a city (aka "incorporated).

As such, many people pay no heed to what sort of history may have gone into the lines drawn on their state maps, especially in a place like Texas where a vast number of counties are just squares hastily drawn on a map in the space of a few years. This map shows the layout of the original counties of California, of which there were just 27. Between 1850 and 1860, another sixteen were added by dividing existing counties, and another fourteen from 1861 to 1893 by the same process. The last modern county of California, Imperial County, was added in 1907. In total, there are now 58 counties in California, including San Bernardino County, the largest by land area in the entire country (ignoring Alaska's boroughs). How large is it? San Bernardino County is larger than the 9 smallest states of the United States, larger than the 4 smallest states combined, and larger than 70 of the world's sovereign nations.

On this map, Mendocino County and Colusi County (now spelled as Colusa County) are marked darker as "mandated counties" of California; that is, the two are counties as laid down by the state, but are "unorganized" in the sense that there is not an organized local government in the same manner as the other 25 counties.