About Rocklin

Roseville Real Estate

Dennis Stettner

Your site for Real Estate in Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay, Folsom,
Fair Oaks,Sacramento and surrounding communities. Including
information and homes for sale in Placer County, Sacramento
County and El Dorado County.

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Geography
Rocklin is located at 38°48′0″N, 121°14′48″W (38.800011, -121.246731)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 41.9 km² (16.2 mi²).
41.9 km² (16.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.12%) is water.

Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 36,330 people, 13,258 households, and 10,009 families
residing in the city. The population density was 867.5/km² (2,246.2/mi²). There were 14,421
housing units at an average density of 344.3/km² (891.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was
88.32% White, 0.91% African American, 0.80% Native American, 4.16% Asian, 0.19% Pacific
Islander, 1.93% from other races, and 3.69% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any
race were 7.91% of the population.

There were 13,258 households out of which 42.6% had children under the age of 18 living with
them, 62.3% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 24.5% were non-families. 18.7% of all households were made up of
individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 3.15.

In the city the population was spread out with 30.0% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24,
33.7% from 25 to 44, 20.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The
median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females
age 18 and over, there were 92.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $64,737, and the median income for a family
was $72,245. Males had a median income of $54,426 versus $35,920 for females. The per capita
income for the city was $26,910. About 3.1% of families and 4.5% of the population were below
the poverty line, including 4.3% of those under age 18 and 3.5% of those age 65 or over.

Average Annual Rainfall: 23.15 inches
Bond Rating: AA-
Earthquake Zone: Zone 3 (Not in a Fault Zone)
Fire Protection: ISO Rating 3 Fire Class
High and Low Average Temperature
January                   37◦          57◦
April                       43◦          72◦
July                         58◦          98◦
October                   47◦          79◦

Average Humidity - 35%   63%
Sales Tax Rate - 7.25%

Education
Currently, the Rocklin Unified School District contains three High Schools (Rocklin High School,
Whitney High School,and Victory Continutaion High School), two Middle Schools (Granite Oaks
Middle School and Springview Middle School), and ten Elementary Schools (Antelope Creek
Elementary School, Breen Elementary School, Cobblestone Elementary School, Parker Whitney
Elementary School, Rocklin Elementary School, Ruhkala Elementary School, Sierra Elementary
School, Twin Oaks Elementary School, Valley View Elementary School, and Rock Creek Elementary
School). Rocklin Elementary is the oldest school in the district, though its location has changed a
few times. Parker Whitney is the oldest school in the district maintaining the same location. The
newest addition is Whitney High School on the border of Rocklin and Lincoln, it is located near
Highway 65 and Twelve Bridges exit.

2006 is the year that Sierra College, a local Community College, will be celebrating its 70th year
of service to the community.

Rocklin is also home to the Sacramento area's first private Christian University: William Jessup
University (www.jessup.edu), previously known as San Jose Christian College.

Early History
Recent archeological evidence indicates earliest human habitation of the Rocklin area at about
7,000 years ago. About 3000 year ago, perhaps as late as 1500 years ago, the Nisenan,
sometimes called Southern Maidu, occupied the area. Although European-Americans severely
disrupted their culture in the 19th century, descendants of these people still reside in South
Placer County.

Although European-Americans were probably fishing and harvesting game in the Rocklin area in
the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, major European-American settlement started in the early
1850’s as fortune hunters sluiced for gold in Secret Ravine, an area of oaks and dredger tailings
that can be found today southeast of Interstate 80 between Roseville and Loomis.

History of Rocklin
The Rocklin area that early miners traveled through to the gold mines east of Sacramento was
made up of groves of oak trees with Digger Pine mixed in. In this area, the hills took shape and
formed a valley that was covered with grass. The many Indians that lived in this area hunted
small game, and used the acorns, pine nuts, berries and other plants that are native to this area
for food.

The gold rush of 1849 slowed, and men were looking for a business venture. An early settler
named Hathaway, seeing the granite boulders above ground in the Rocklin area, decided to
open a quarry. This early day quarry furnished some of the base core of the California State
Capitol. The first loads of granite were hauled by drawn wagons. Later the Central Pacific
Railroad arrived in Rocklin in May 1864 and granite was hauled by freight car.

Early settlers included many people of Irish descent who worked for the railroad and the
quarries. Chinese and Finnish settlers started arriving in numbers in the 1870’s. Around the
turn of the century, over 50% of the population were people of Finnish descent. Spanish and
Japanese settlers began to arrive in the early 1900’s.

Rocklin is a city that has granite under it and around it, and no one has ever bored through it to
find the thickness. The granite in this area is even textured, very hard, available in large blocks,
takes a high polish and is used extensively for memorial and building work.

In the early 1890’s there were about 30 quarries operating at one time, many of these cutting
street curbing for the larger cities. Some of the buildings made with Rocklin granite include the
Bank of Italy, now Bank of America, the United States Mint in San Francisco, part of the state
capitol, California National Bank, city hall and the county jail in Sacramento, Oakland Auditorium,
Stockton Courthouse, Solano County Courthouse, dry docks at Pearl Harbor and Mare Island,
Placer County Courthouse, Rocklin City Hall, Rocklin Barber Shop (now an antique store on 1st
Street, Monterey Breakwater and many other buildings. Also many thousands of tons of granite
have been used in Sacramento River Levee maintenance. Gold was really the incentive that
brought people to the area, although no big gold deposits were ever written about in the Rocklin
area.

The Central Pacific Railroad provided easy transportation and hastened the hauling of building
granite to the cities where it was needed. Consequently, Rocklin was selected as the site of the
roundhouse, which was built in 1868 because this was the so-called bottom of the hill.

Some 14,000 Chinese came to work on the Central Pacific Railroad. When the railroad was
completed in 1869, these Chinese moved to every area looking for work. A small group moved
to the Rocklin area where they mined for gold and raised vegetables to sell to area residents.
Many vegetables were raised in the China Gardens area on the Secret Ravine Creek in Rocklin.
On June 27, 1873 the roundhouse burned, destroying ten locomotives and tenders. It was
slowly rebuilt using granite in the walls to make it more fire proof.

As Rocklin and the railroad grew, so did another enterprise – Spring Valley Ranch. Joel Parker
Whitney, Rocklin’s own remarkable western pioneer. In 1852 penniless and only seventeen
years of age, he passed through on his way to the Placer gold fields. He stopped in the lower
foothills to camp out, thinking someday to claim this land for his own. Hoping to make enough
money to make his dream a reality, he started out on a hunting market venture that literally
brought him a fortune in one year. Joel Parker Whitney returned home with his father, George
Whitney, in 1856 to purchase the first section of 320 acres of land located at the edge of Rocklin
and to found the famous Spring Valley Ranch, also known as the Whitney Ranch. Four
generations of Whitneys maintained their home at Rocklin from the start of the ranch. Joel
Parker Whitney became not only a pioneer in the wool industry, but in fruit culture (forming the
Placer Co. Citrus Colony), in irrigation, in reclamation of agricultural lands and in the development
of mineral resources in the Rocky Mountains. The Rocklin home he built was a mansion called
“The Oaks”, and the entire ranch was known as the magnificent landed estate of the Honorable
J. Parker Whitney. It became the social center of famous Californians.

In February 1905, news spread that the Central Pacific Railroad planned to enlarge the yards,
the roundhouse and make other improvements. This seemed to assure the prosperity of Rocklin
and some people made property investments looking ahead to good times.

*History of Rocklin condensed from the 1976 Bicentennial article by Roy Ruhkala.

Placer County
Administrative Services
2986 Richardson Drive
Auburn, CA 95603
(530) 889-4275
www.placer.ca.gov/admin/admin.htm
Assessor
2980 Richardson Drive
Auburn, CA 95603-2640
(530) 889-4300
www.placer.ca.gov/assessor/assessor.htm
Auditor Controller
2970 Richardson Drive
DeWitt Center
Auburn, CA 95603
Phone: (530) 889-4160
www.placer.ca.gov/auditor/auditor.htm
Board of Supervisors
175 Fulweiler Avenue
Auburn, CA 95603
(530) 889-4010
www.placer.ca.gov/bos/bos.htm
County Executive Office
175 Fulweiler Avenue
Auburn, CA 95603
(530) 889-4030
www.placer.ca.gov/exec/exec.htm
District Attorney
11562 B Avenue
Auburn, CA 95603
(530) 889-7000
www.placer.ca.gov/da/da.htm