The Sonora area consists of the towns of Sonora, Twain Harte, Jamestown, Columbia, and Tuolumne City, which are essentially adjacent to each other. The county is Tuolumne County, which is bounded on the north by New Melones Resevoir and in the south stretches into Yosemite National Park. Sonora has a population of just under 5000, the county overall has a population of about 60,000, and the combined townships have a population of about 22,000.
The mailing address for the house is in Sonora, but this is an unincorporated area of Sonora, and in fact the closest town is Twain Harte. It's 6 miles to Twain Harte, and 13 miles to downtown Sonora.
With an area population of over 20,000, this is enough to have all the major amenities. There are six major grocery stores, four department stores including Gottschalk's and Mervyn's, four major hardware stores including Orchard Supply, and a Walmart. Sorry, no Target or Trader Joe's; you have to go to Modesto (about an hour and fifteen minutes' drive) for those.
There's a multiplex movie theater, several venues for live music featuring local talent, and Black Oak Casino. Restaurants slant towards either California cuisine, steak house, or Mexican, but among those the following are all really fine places to eat:
- Lickskillet Cafe, Columbia
- Jamestown Hotel, Jamestown
- National Hotel, Jamestown
- The Willow Restaurant, Jamestown
- Banny's, Sonora
- Alfredo's, Sonora
- Diamondback Grill, Sonora
- The Old Stan, Sonora
- Eproson House, Twain Harte
The school districts for this area all fall under the supervision of Tuolumne County. The elementary school for this neighborhood is Belleview Elementary. Belleview is consistently one of the top schools in the county in test scores, and scores well above the California state average. It covers grades K-8. The school is about two miles from the house. There is school bus service a half mile from the house where Mount Elizabeth Drive intersects Kewin Mill Road.
Belleview feeds into Sonora High School (also serviced by bus from the corner of Mount Elizabeth and Kewin Mill.
The Sonora area is served by one major hospital, Sonora Regional Medical Center. There is also an urgent care facility in East Sonora in the Indian Rock shopping center called Prompt Care. The area has a number of excellent primary care, dental care, and vision care providers.
Cedar Ridge is well-covered for fire prevention and fire response. There is a watch tower on top of Mount Elizabeth manned by the California Department of Forestry during fire season, and Cedar Ridge has a fire station less than a mile from the house. The Cedar Ridge fire station is all volunteer; the nearest staffed fire station is in Twain Harte, just a few miles away.
Transportation in and out is pretty much by driving. There is a small plane airport in Columbia, but neither Amtrak nor Greyhound services Sonora. The nearest Amtrak station is in Modesto. Modesto is also the nearest airport, although it is only served by United and only with 4 flights a day to San Francisco and 4 flights a day to Los Angeles. Sacramento, San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco airports all have major service from all major airlines, and are all between 2 and 3 hours driving time from the house.