Rio Dell

History

Rio Dell was founded and named by businessman Lorenzo Painter, who devised the name as a merging of Spanish río ("river") and English dell ("small wooded valley"). Originally settled on the territories of the Wiyot, Nongatl, and Mattole tribes, Rio Dell was reportedly first dubbed "Tokemuk" by native inhabitants of the land who were thought to be of multiple regional tribes and who uniquely spoke at least two different regional languages. The native presence was greatly diminished following the 1860 Wiyot massacre on Indian Island that extended south to the Eel river valley where Rio Dell is located. From there, the area became known as Eagle Prairie and finally as Rio Dell. The first post office at Rio Dell opened in 1876. After the first bridge was destroyed by a flood in 1905, a ferry carried mill workers from Rio Dell upstream to Scotia, and a second ferry carried mill workers downstream to Metropolitan until a suspension bridge was built to Scotia in 1914. The fire endangered the bridge to Scotia and prevented the Scotia Fire Department from crossing the bridge to help extinguish the fire.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 5.61%, is water. This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Rio Dell has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated Csb on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,357
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  2,262
• Black Phoebe

  Sayornis nigricans (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  2,057
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  2,040
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,984
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,796
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,515
• Great Egret

  Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,360

Largest nearby schools

• Fortuna Union High
  High · Fortuna · 830 students · 19.3:1 ratio
• Ferndale Elementary
  Elementary · Ferndale · 344 students · 19.1:1 ratio
• Norman G. Ambrosini Elementary
  Elementary · Fortuna · 323 students · 19:1 ratio
• Linell K. Walker Elementary
  Elementary · Fortuna · 294 students · 19.6:1 ratio
• Toddy Thomas Middle
  Middle · Fortuna · 250 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• Fortuna Middle
  Middle · Fortuna · 237 students · 15.8:1 ratio
• Eagle Prairie Elementary
  Elementary · Rio Dell · 236 students · 23.6:1 ratio
• Redwood Preparatory Charter
  Elementary · Fortuna · 219 students · 24.3:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.52 — 2026-09-22
  40 km W of Petrolia, CA
• M 2.6 — 2026-09-22
  47 km WNW of Petrolia, CA
• M 2.8 — 2026-09-21
  19 km WSW of Petrolia, CA
• M 2.54 — 2026-09-18
  19 km W of Petrolia, CA
• M 3.52 — 2026-09-16
  20 km WSW of Petrolia, CA
• M 2.92 — 2026-09-15
  17 km WSW of Petrolia, CA