Panoche, California

The unincorporated community of Panoche is located along Panoche Road in the southern, rural part of San Benito County, California, United States. The community is about 2.7 driving miles east of County Route J1. The county seat, Hollister, is roughly convert|35|mi|km|0 straight-line distance. The Fresno County line is about convert|3.7|mi|km|1 distant to the northeast. The area encompassed by San Benito County continues just over 20 miles further south where the south extent meets Fresno and Monterey counties. [Panoche, California, 7.5-minute quadrangle, US Geological Survey, (1969). ]

The US Geological Survey feature ID is 252760 and the NAD27 latitude and longitude are listed as coord|36|35|49|N|120|50|01|W. Elevation is shown as convert|1220|ft|m|0 AMSL. [National Geographic Names Database, US Geological Survey, March, 1998.]

The Panoche Inn is one of few area landmarks. The bar and restaurant is busy with motorcycle enthusiasts on weekends in sunny weather. Some customers camp at Mercey Hot Springs or ride off-road vehicles at a nearby Bureau of Land Management tract. On the drive from Interstate 5, motorists will pass Little Panoche Reservoir: about 12.6 straight-line miles distant at 7.6 degrees off true north.

There is only one place in the entire world named Panoche, making it unique among the world's place names. It is thought that the name Panoche is derived from the local Indian word for a species of cane that once grew in the valley from which the Indians extracted panoche, a kind of sugar. It is believed that this is the origin for the name "panocha", a popular Mexican and Filipino sugar (though processed somewhat differently from each other), and a pudding eaten during Lent in New Mexico and Southern Colorado. [Three Rocks Report, Three Rocks Research, April 2006.]

The ZIP Code is 95043. The community is inside area code 831.

Politics

In the state legislature Panoche is located in the 12th Senate District, represented by Republican Jeff Denham, and in the 28th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Anna M. Caballero. Federally, Panoche is located in California's 17th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of D +17 [cite web | title = Will Gerrymandered Districts Stem the Wave of Voter Unrest? | publisher = Campaign Legal Center Blog | url=http://www.clcblog.org/blog_item-85.html | accessdate = 2007-10-20] and is represented by Democrat Sam Farr.

Nearby features

* Mercey Hot Springs, California
* New Idria, California

Notes

External links

* [http://www.blm.gov/ca/hollister/panoche_tumeys.html BLM Panoche and Tumey Hills areas.]
* [http://www.panocheinn.com/HomePage.asp Panoche Inn]
* [http://www.3rocks.org Three Rocks Research] , [http://www.3rocks.org/nletter/2006/2006-04_Apr_newsletter.pdf "Three Rocks Report", April 2006 Newsletter]