Springtown (formerly, Confederate Corners) is an unincorporated community in

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States.

History

Originally Springtown or Spring Town, the place was named Confederate Corners after some Southerners settled there in the late 1860s. The early settlement included a general store and a wagon-making factory. In the 1960s, it was considered that the community should become a retirement community. The place is the inspiration for the fictional small town "Rebel Corners" in

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

's novel ''

The Wayward Bus ''The Wayward Bus'' is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1947. The novel's epigraph is a passage from the 15th-century English play '' Everyman'', with its archaic English intact; the quotation refers to the transitory nat ...

''. It is located south-southwest of Salinas, at the corner of

California State Route 68 State Route 68 (SR 68) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, located entirely in Monterey County. It runs from Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove to U.S. Route 101 in Salinas. The approximately long highway serves as a majo ...

and Hitchcock Road.

Name change

In 2017 a local campaign was started to rename the area. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted in support of the name change. In 2018, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved changing the name to Springtown in reference to Francis and John Spring who had moved in the 1800s to Monterey County from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The name "Confederate Corners" was rarely used or known among locals, and the area had no signs displaying the name.

Government

At the county level, Springtown is represented on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors by Supervisor Jane Parker. In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, Springtown is in , and in . In the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, Springtown is in .

References

* https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=138:3:0::NO:3:P3_FID,P3_TITLE:221451,Springtown Unincorporated communities in Monterey County, California Salinas Valley Unincorporated communities in California {{MontereyCountyCA-geo-stub