Loyalton is the only incorporated city in Sierra County, California, United States.

According to Rand-McNally, it is a fifty-mile drive on State Route 49 to the county seat, Downieville.

The name was changed to Loyalton with the onset of the Civil War, expressing the popular sentiment in the area favoring the Union.

[5] The first settlers to the area were largely Swiss and Italian immigrants who established farms in the Sierra Valley starting in the late 1850s.

The production of timber and farms goods found a market among the miners in both California and Nevada.

The city is located along California State Route 49, the Gold Country Highway.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1.0 km2), all land.

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F.

[15] Federally, Loyalton is in California's 1st congressional district, represented by Republican Doug LaMalfa.

[17] The City of Loyalton's total expenditures for 2012 were $1.2 million, funded mostly from outside sources such as federal and county grants.

[18] In 2012, the Loyalton City Council decided to withdraw from CalPERS because its last employee with a guaranteed pension had retired.

[18] The city had been fully paying its required annual contribution of $30,000 and had only four remaining pensioners.

[19] Loyalton has not yet paid the bill so CalPERS is charging 7.5% annual interest and had sent a final demand letter in September 2016.

[18] Loyalton was extensively used as a filming location in the 1949 movie Beyond the Forest, starring Bette Davis and Joseph Cotten, and directed by King Vidor.