Siskiyou County - Created March 22, 1852. The word Siskiyou has never been authentically determined. It has generally been assumed that this is the name of a tribe of Indians inhabiting this region, but there are several stories regarding its derivation and meaning. Senator Jacob R. Snyder of San Francisco, who advocated the formation of this county, in an argument delivered April 24, 1862, in the Senate of the State of California, stated that the French name "Six Callieux" was given to a ford on the Umpqua River at which place Michel La Frambeau, who led a party of Hudson Bay Company trappers, crossed in the year 1832. Six large stones or rocks lay in the river where they crossed, and they gave it the name of "Six Callieux' or "Six-stone Ford," and from this the mountain or butte derived its name, which was subsequently given to the county when created.

Source: California, its History and Romance by John Steven McGroarty, 1911, Transcribed by C. Anthony

Why "Siskiyou" and "Yreka" were so Named. - The Siskiyou County Journal, published at Yreka, enlightens the worlk as to why that county and town were originally so named. Whether the story is in jest or earnest does not appear.

The Journal says:
Siskiyou, in the language of the Rogue River Indians, means bob-tail, and the chain of mountains forming the dividing line between Oregon and California, obtained the name of Siskiyou mountains in this wise: Once, on a time, many years ago, a party of Rogue River Indians were crossing that mountain, when a bob-tailed horse, belonging to the party, gave out and was left on the hill; afterwards when the Indians spoke of going back for the horse, they used the term Siskiyou, meaning the horse, which term was afterwards applied as the name by which to distinguish that particular chain of hills.

The town of Yreka was originally called Shasta Butte City, from its near proximity to Shasta Butte, but it was afterwards discovered that the Indian name for Shasta Butte was Yaka. What is now Siskiyou county was then a portion of Shasta county; and to avoid confusion between the names of Shasta City and Shasta Butte City, Capt. Pierce and Samuel Fleming, the two first Representatives ever elected from what is now Siskiyou county, adopted the Indian name for the Butte as that of the city, changing its ortography from Yeka to Wyreka. In the course of time the W was dropped and the word has ever since been spelled Yreka. The name Yreka City means, literally, Shasta Butte City.

Source: San Francisco Bulletin, January 5, 1861, Transcribed by C. Anthony