Crescent City (Tolowa: Taa-’at-dvn; Yurok: Kohpey; Wiyot: Daluwagh) is the lonesome incorporated city in Del Norte County, California; it is as a consequence the county seat. Named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city, Crescent City had a sum population of 6,673 in the 2020 census, down from 7,643 in the 2010 census. The population includes inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison, also within the city limits, and the former census-designated place Crescent City North annexed to the city. The city is after that the site of the Redwood National Park headquarters, as with ease as the historic Battery Point Light. Due to the richness of the local Pacific Ocean waters and the linked catch, and ease of access, Crescent City Harbor serves as house port for numerous announcement fishing vessels.

The city is upon the Pacific coast in the upper northwestern allocation of California, about 20 mi (32 km) south of the Oregon border. Crescent City’s offshore geography makes it unusually susceptible to tsunamis. Much of the city was destroyed by four tsunami waves generated by the Great Alaskan earthquake off Anchorage, Alaska in 1964. More recently, the city’s port suffered extensive broken and destruction from tsunamis generated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake off Sendai, Japan. Several dozen vessels and many of the docks they were moored to were destroyed as answer cycles similar to the tsunamis exceeded 8 ft (2.4 m).

The climate of Crescent City is moderate, with cool summers for its latitude correspondingly of intense maritime moderation. Nearby inland areas at the rear the mountains have significantly warmer summer temperatures.

The area that is now known as Del Norte County was and yet is inhabited by the Yurok (Klamath River Indians) and Tolowa Nations of indigenous peoples. The first European American to probe this land was entrepreneur Jedediah Smith in the at the forefront 19th century. He was the first European American to attain the Place overland upon foot in a era before the European Americans knew all about such a vague territory. For him it was literally “Land’s End” — where the American continent over and done with at the Pacific Ocean. In 1855, the U.S. Congress authorized the building of a lighthouse at “the battery point” (a tall tide island on the coast of Crescent City) which is nevertheless functioning as a historical landmark.