Portola, California: Five Names and a Festival Queen

Portola, California, went through four names in about five years before it took a fifth from a festival held in San Francisco. The festival was honoring a Spanish governor from 1769, and the woman who suggested it was the daughter of a Western Pacific railroad man.

A logging camp that kept changing its mind

The city’s own history of the town, posted by the City of Portola, starts in the woods. In 1905 lumbermen from Reno came looking for pine and fir along the Middle Fork of the Feather River. “In 1905, the Portola area got its first name, ‘Headquarters,’ after a small logging camp with about one hundred men.”

That didn’t last. Loggers from Utah moved in and “the camp became ‘Mormon Junction,’ and shortly after, in 1908, ‘Imola.’” Then came “one more name change to ‘Reposa’ in 1909.” That’s four names, and the town wasn’t done.

The queen of the Portola Festival

The fifth name came out of San Francisco. In October 1909 the city threw a five-day Portola Festival to celebrate its rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake. The Salt Lake Tribune reported the choice of its queen that September:

“Miss Virgilia Bogue, daughter of Virgil Bogue, vice president of the Western Pacific railroad, has been chosen as queen.”

The Western Pacific was building its line through the Feather River Canyon in those years, and it would run right past the camp. In 1910, the city history says, “Virgilia Bogue, queen of the 1909 Portola Festival in San Francisco and daughter of Virgil Bogue, a prominent local engineer for the Western Pacific, suggested the name ‘Portola’ in passing, and soon thereafter, in a town meeting, it became official.”

You’ll see that the two sources describe her father differently. The 1909 newspaper calls him a vice president of the railroad, and the city calls him an engineer. Both tie him to the Western Pacific.

Who was Portolá?

The festival, and so the town, honored Gaspar de Portolá. A syndicated story in the October 22, 1909, Washburn Leader explained that San Francisco was celebrating “the discovery of San Francisco bay by an old fellow named Gaspar de Portola, first Spanish governor of California, back in 1769.” The Federal Writers’ Project, in its 1939 California guide, put the whole chain in one sentence. Portola, it said, was “a new and somewhat raw looking town, named for the Portola Fiesta in San Francisco in 1909, commemorating Caspar de Portola, California’s first Spanish governor.” The guide spells his first name Caspar, while the 1909 festival coverage used Gaspar.

So if you’re looking for the explorer in the town’s name, he’s one step removed. Portola is named for a party that was named for him.

A depot on the new line

The Western Pacific was completed through the canyon in 1910, the city says, and Portola became a natural spot for a depot. Nearby Clairville, on the other side of the river and on older narrow-gauge rails, emptied out within a few years as people and even buildings moved to Portola. Portola’s entry in the Geological Survey’s names register adds one date: “Incorporated in 1946.”

A camp that couldn’t settle on a name finally borrowed one from a city party, and that one stuck.

Quick answers

Where does the name Portola come from?

From San Francisco’s Portola Fiesta of 1909, according to the 1939 Federal Writers’ Project guide. The festival honored Gaspar de Portolá, the first Spanish governor of California, and his “discovery of San Francisco bay” in 1769.

What were Portola’s earlier names?

Headquarters (1905), Mormon Junction, Imola (1908) and Reposa (1909), according to the City of Portola.

Who suggested the name Portola?

Virgilia Bogue, queen of the 1909 Portola Festival and daughter of Western Pacific official Virgil Bogue, in 1910, according to the city’s history. A town meeting then made it official.

Key dates

1. 1905A logging camp of about a hundred men gives the place its first name, Headquarters.
2. 1908After a spell as Mormon Junction, the camp becomes Imola.
3. 1909The town is renamed Reposa. In October, San Francisco holds its Portola Festival, with Virgilia Bogue as queen.
4. 1910Bogue suggests the name Portola, and a town meeting adopts it. The Western Pacific is finished through the Feather River Canyon.
5. 1946Portola incorporates.

Getting there

Open Portola in Google Maps

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Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of Portola in the USGS place-name record.

The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of Portola.

Airports

• Reno/Tahoe International (RNO) 43 mi 69 km
• Sacramento International (SMF) 98 mi 157 km

Amtrak trains

• Truckee station (TRU) 37 mi 59 km
• Reno station (RNO) 40 mi 64 km

Intercity buses

• Greyhound Truckee Chamber Of Commerce 37 mi 59 km
• Amtrak Chartered Vehicle Amtrak Connecting Service · Truckee Amtrak Station 37 mi 59 km
• AVLN Amtrak Connecting Service · Truckee Amtrak Station 37 mi 59 km

Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.

Historical Sources & References

• City of Portola, “The History of Portola”. The names Headquarters, Mormon Junction, Imola and Reposa, Virgilia Bogue’s suggestion, the town meeting, the Western Pacific of 1910 and the move from Clairville.
• Federal Writers’ Project, California: A Guide to the Golden State (1939), p. 534. Portola “named for the Portola Fiesta in San Francisco in 1909, commemorating Caspar de Portola, California’s first Spanish governor.”
• The Salt Lake Tribune, September 26, 1909, p. 17. “Miss Virgilia Bogue, daughter of Virgil Bogue, vice president of the Western Pacific railroad, has been chosen as queen,” and a festival “to celebrate the rebuilding of the city.”
• The Washburn Leader, October 22, 1909, p. 3. The festival as a celebration of “the discovery of San Francisco bay” by “Gaspar de Portola, first Spanish governor of California, back in 1769,” with Virgilia Bogue as queen.
• GNIS feature 1659425 (U.S. Geological Survey). Portola’s entry in the Geological Survey’s names register, with its location in Plumas County and “Incorporated in 1946.”