POPULATION: 9,570

INCORPORATION DATE: 1874

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:

• District 1 – Ned Coe
• District 2 – Shane Starr
• District 3 – Kathie Rhoads
• District 4 – Elizabeth Cavasso
• District 5 – Geri Byrne

FORM OF GOVERNMENT: General Law

MODOC. County seat, Alturas. Created February 17, 1874, from an eastern section of Siskiyou county. It derived its name from a fierce Indian tribe which lived at the Pit River headwaters. One historian suggests that the word modoc means “the head of the river.” Another states that the word is derived from the Klamath word moatakni meaning “southerners,” i.e., the people living south of the Klamath tribe.