Dixon, California
California
Dixon got its name from a mislabeled freight shipment, and nobody ever bothered to correct it.
The town was supposed to be called Dicksville. Thomas Dickson had given ten acres of his land for a railroad depot, and naming the place after him seemed only fair. Then in 1872 the first rail shipment of merchandise arrived from San Francisco, addressed to Dixon. The name stuck, mainly because it was simpler. The whole town was there by accident anyway. It started in 1852 as Silveyville, founded by Elijah Silvey as a halfway stop for miners walking between the Pacific coast and the gold fields near Sacramento. In 1868 the Central Pacific Railroad laid its tracks and missed Silveyville by a few miles. Rather than watch the commerce pass them by, local leaders decided to pick the town up and move it. In 1871 they hauled it closer to the rails. One of the buildings that made the trip still stands on North Jefferson Street, the Dixon Methodist Church.
This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
However, when the first rail shipment of merchandise arrived from San Francisco in 1872, it was mistakenly addressed to "Dixon"—a name that has been used since, mainly out of simplicity.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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