Alpine County, California
Alpine County · Markleeville is the seat · least populous California county · no incorporated cities · no county jail on this map · Sacramento is the capital · Alpine, Texas is a different state
Markleeville is the seat. Sacramento is the capital. This is California's least populous county.
Alpine County, California, was created 16 March 1864 from pieces of Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mono, and Tuolumne, during the silver years, and named for the Sierra. Markleeville is the county seat. Sacramento is the capital of California. Markleeville is not the capital. South Lake Tahoe is not this hall — that city sits in El Dorado. This is the least populous county in California — on the order of a thousand people, not a Bay remainder with a new name. Do not read this page as Alameda-with-snow. Do not read this page as Autauga-with-a-pass. Oakland is Alameda. Prattville is Autauga. Neither is this oval.
There are no incorporated cities. Woodfords, Hung-A-Lel-Ti, Alpine Village, Mesa Vista, Kirkwood, and Bear Valley are communities — not a city hall that retires this Sheriff. Kirkwood is a resort on the Amador line — not this government. Bear Valley sits toward Calaveras — confirm which side of the line you are on before you file a report. This is not Alpine County, Texas. This is not the City of Alpine, Texas. This is not Alpine, Utah / Wyoming / Colorado as this hall.
This page is Side One for the place. The Sheriff’s job — whole-county patrol because there is no city PD, and a contracted jail because there is no county house here — is taught at Office of the Sheriff — Alpine County.
Five Supervisors at the Government Center. They do not sit as the Nevada Legislature.
Alpine is a general-law county. A five-member Board of Supervisors sits at the Alpine County Government Center, 99 Water Street, Markleeville. They fund roads, the courthouse calendar, and the Sheriff’s budget. They do not hire the Sheriff. The people do. There is no city council on this map. The California Legislature sits in Sacramento. Douglas County, Nevada, is a different state. None of those is this Board.
The Sheriff’s own page: the Markleeville office is headquarters, sharing a county building with County Administration. Court work sits in Markleeville — Alpine Superior Court clerk (530) 694-2113. Confirm live at alpinecountyca.gov and alpine.courts.ca.gov.
The Sheriff is a county officer (California Constitution Article XI; Government Code § 24000). This Sheriff is not on the 2026 gubernatorial table. Elections Code § 1300 moved sheriff and district attorney to the presidential primary. A sheriff elected in 2022 serves a six-year term; the next regular is the 2028 presidential primary. Alpine’s June 2026 notice listed Assessor/Recorder, County Clerk, Superintendent, Superior Court, and Supervisors — not Sheriff. Last regular 7 June 2022. Take office at noon on the first Monday after January 1 succeeding election (Gov. Code § 24200). The Governor is 2026. That is a different desk in Sacramento.
The Sierra is a range. Kirkwood is a resort. Alpine, Texas is a different state.
State Route 4, State Route 88, and State Route 89 are the spines. Ebbetts Pass and Monitor Pass close. About 1,100 square miles. About 90 percent public land — the Sheriff’s own page says so. The Carson Range and the Sierra are geography, not a Nevada badge. El Dorado is west — Placerville is that hall; South Lake Tahoe is that county’s city, not this one. Amador is southwest — Jackson is that hall. Calaveras is south — San Andreas is that hall. Tuolumne is southeast — Sonora is that hall. Mono is south and east — Bridgeport is that hall. Douglas County, Nevada, is east. Staff who paste an Alameda photograph onto Water Street, or treat South Lake Tahoe as this county government, or file Alpine, Texas, as this hall, or rewrite this county as Alameda-with-snow, are on the wrong county.
How a Sierra public finds Water Street, and does not find a county jail here
Government Center / Sheriff: 99 Water Street, P.O. Box 278, Markleeville, CA 96120 — (530) 694-2231. There are no jail facilities in Alpine County. The Sheriff’s own page and the Superior Court both say so. Jail services are contracted to El Dorado County and Calaveras County. El Dorado’s South Lake Tahoe Jail lists at 1051 Al Tahoe Boulevard, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150 — (530) 573-3031. That house is El Dorado’s, not a second Alpine hall. Confirm live at alpinecountyca.gov/204/Sheriff and alpine.courts.ca.gov. A student who only knows a Tahoe postcard, or an Alameda photograph as this county, or treats 99 Water as a mega-jail, has not found this campus.
This Sheriff does not hold a county jail. El Dorado and Calaveras do the housing.
Crime on this map is this Sheriff — there is no city police department to hand the call to. CHP is a state badge on the highway. Forest Service and Park officers are federal and state, not this oval. Douglas County, Nevada, is a different state. This Sheriff is the county, and the county is the whole inhabited map. Detention is honest: bookings and fingerprints can happen by appointment at 99 Water Street; longer housing is El Dorado and Calaveras by contract. Do not invent a 76-bed house on Court Street. Do not invent Santa Rita. Do not send a family looking for an Alpine inmate to a fictional Markleeville jail.
CDCR is not this Sheriff. A Tahoe city jail rumor is El Dorado or a city, not this oval. Do not send a family looking for a county booking to Jackson (Amador), to Martinez, or to Alpine, Texas.
Care without inventing South Lake Tahoe as this county hall
A peace order served in Woodfords. A transport from Markleeville to a contracted house in El Dorado or Calaveras. Search and rescue on Ebbetts and Monitor. Reverse-911 on this map has used Douglas County, Nevada, 911 as a neighbor’s system — confirm the live signup the Sheriff posts. Do not invent a church. Do not invent Tahoe as this hall.
What Alpine actually watches
Court calendar in Markleeville. A wreck on Highway 88. Snow on Ebbetts. Fire in the sage. A lost party toward Carson Pass. Coordination with El Dorado’s Sheriff, Calaveras’s Sheriff, Amador’s Sheriff, and Douglas County, Nevada, without becoming those departments. The Sierra is geography. Lake Tahoe’s California shore is mostly El Dorado. Neither is Alameda as this oval.
Markleeville snapshot (verify official sources)
- State: California · County: Alpine · Seat: Markleeville · Capital of California: Sacramento
- Map: Markleeville · Woodfords · Hung-A-Lel-Ti · Kirkwood · Bear Valley · Highway 4 / 88 / 89 · Sierra / Nevada line
- Not Alpine County, Texas · Not South Lake Tahoe as this hall · Not Alameda-with-snow · Not a city PD
- Board: five Supervisors at 99 Water Street
- Sheriff clock: not 2026 · last regular 2022 · next regular 2028 presidential primary
- Jail: none in-county · contract El Dorado and Calaveras
Orientation adapted from the California Constitution Article XI, Elections Code § 1300, Government Code §§ 24000, 24200, 25304, and 26600, Alpine County official pages (alpinecountyca.gov Sheriff and Elections), Alpine Superior Court, and the Secretary of State for education. The Sheriff of record is whatever those sources say today. Confirm HQ versus contracted jail, and El Dorado versus this badge, on official pages before you travel.
What Markleeville is not, as this county
- Not the capital of California. Sacramento is.
- Not Alpine County, Texas. Not the City of Alpine, Texas.
- Not South Lake Tahoe as this hall. Not Kirkwood as this government.
- Not a city police department — there is none.
- Not a county jail on this map — housing is contracted.
- Not Alameda-with-snow. Not Autauga-with-a-pass.
- Not the Governor (that desk is 2026 in Sacramento).
- Not a campaign flyer.