Marysville is the seat of Yuba County, located at the confluence of the Feather and Yuba rivers in the northern Sacramento Valley, about 40 miles north of Sacramento and roughly ten miles west of Beale Air Force Base. Its position made it a natural gateway during the California Gold Rush, when it grew into a major commercial center for miners heading into the gold fields, earning the nickname "Gateway to the Gold Fields." Today the city carries the honorary title "California's Oldest Little City," a nod to its Gold Rush origins and its compact, historic core. The city's history is visible in its downtown, where the Marysville Historic Commercial District—listed on the National Register of Historic Places—contains nearly sixty contributing buildings spanning the mid-nineteenth century to the post-World War II era. The Bok Kai Temple, a Taoist temple erected by Chinese miners as early as 1854 and rebuilt at its present corner of D and First streets in 1880, anchors what was once a bustling Chinatown; its annual Bok Kai Festival and parade are among the oldest continuously held celebrations in California. Marysville sits in the floodplain between two rivers, and the Marysville Ring Levee encircles the city, reducing flood risk for its roughly 12,500 residents, the region's major hospital, and the highways and Union Pacific rail lines that pass through. State Routes 70 and 20 cross the city, and Beale Air Force Base, a major regional employer, lies about ten miles to the east. Education is anchored by the Marysville Joint Unified School District, which operates more than twenty schools, and by Yuba College, a community college founded in 1927. Ellis Lake, a man-made lake in the city center that began as a Feather River spillway, and Beckwourth Riverfront Park on the Feather River provide everyday recreation. The result is a city with a strong sense of its own history, a working agricultural and health-care economy, and a convenient position between Sacramento and the Sierra foothills.