Dixon, California

L ocated 23 miles outside California’s capital of Sacramento is Dixon – a charming city full of potential. Its origins date back to the 1850s and California’s Gold Rush, when hopeful travellers came to find their fortunes. Those who stayed, established settlements like Silveyville, although its location was only semi-permanent until 1870 when the Vaca Valley and Clear Lake Railroad’s Solano County line was built. Since the train tracks didn’t travel through Silveyville, the residents relocated their entire community to Thomas Dickson’s land where tracks did cross. The ambitious move even included the Dixon United Methodist Church, which still stands today and welcomes parishioners every Sunday. Dickson donated his land on the condition the town be named ‘Dicksonville’ after him. Unfortunately, after the first rail shipment was mislabelled as ‘Dixon,’ the simplified spelling stuck. Today, almost 150 years later, the city is still going strong. “We’re at a very exciting growth point, lots of things are starting to happen,” reports Mayor Steve Bird. “When I moved here in 1988 to work with the Dixon Police Department, we had 9,000 residents. Now we’re over 20,000. Dixon was originally agricultural-based but, over the past 33 years, I’ve witnessed first-hand its ON, ifornia AT A GLANCE CITY OF DIXON, CALIFORNIA WHAT: A rapidly growing community; population in excess of 20,000 WHERE: Northern Solano County, California WEBSITE: www.cityofdixon.us Possibility lives here