Barks mentioned Calisota only once in his stories. This happened in FC0422 The Gilded Man from 1952, in which a postmaster reads an address outloud to Donald Duck. There can be little doubt that Barks just constructed the name for the occasion without much thought, but what caused him to choose that particular name?
Early on, fans 'deducted' that Calisota is a blend of the states California and Minnesota, which is indeed a plausible interpretation, especially as Barks knew both states quite well (he had lived in both of them), but it would also seem appropriate to choose an amalgamation between a coast and mountain state and a prairie state recognizing the highly changeable nature sceneries in the stories.

Another possible explanation could be that Barks came to think of the city of Calistoga in California! Calistoga lies in the Napa County between San Francisco and Sacramento. It is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of San Jacinto where Barks lived in 1952. This is only an 8 hour drive and Barks must have passed through or near Calistoga on a number of occasions, and maybe he just had the name in the back of his head when he wrote the story. Who can say?

Barks made the fictitious location Calisota a state in the USA, i.e. an extra state besides the 50 official ones! This is obvious from the aforementioned letter read by a postmaster. Furthermore, in one story Barks - in a whimsical and commonly overlooked way - revealed that he considered Calisota as a real part of his country. It happened in WDCS245 Sitting High from 1961, where Donald borrows a camel for a ride, but he later comes back alone and bellows: It ran two miles up the barest canyon in forty 'leven states. Aha! Forty 'leven! So 40 plus 11 = 51!

But before you call Calisota the USAs 51st state, you should remember that after its 'birth' in 1952 came Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. Therefore it is more correct to perceive Calisota as the 49th state...

Barks never told us exactly where Calisota is located in his stories, but among fans there seems to be some sort of concensus wedging it between Oregon and California, where the northern part of California has been used to form Calisota. Several maps on the Internet testify to that 'fact'.

Keeping the aforementioned postmaster's words in mind, we know that Duckburg is part of Calisota. The official clearly considers Duckburg to be a city (anything from a hamlet to a metropolis) in Calisota, but there is absolutely no evidence to say that Duckburg is the state capital. In fact, Barks managed to muddle things up considerably, when in U$64 Treasure of Marco Polo he showed us that Duckburg had an embassy in a faraway nation suggesting that Duckburg is a city state in itself!!! Granted, Duckburg is mostly seen as a multifaceted area containing all sorts of official facilities (it even has spacecraft launching facilities(!)), but on the other hand it has mayors suggesting Duckburg is after all just a city.

When we seek to know exactly where Calisota is situated, it may be simpler to approach the problem by trying to figure out where Duckburg is!? Well, this website has been attempting to do just that, and the result was confusing to say the least. See more HERE (where we hear from yet another postmaster...).

Barks drew numerous locations from Calisota, and many of them were also named. Do you recall these few examples?:
Avalanche Valley - Beaver Island - Bullet Valley - Cape Quack - Cathedral of Notre Duck - Dismal Swamp - Fort Duckburg - Goosetown - Killmotor Hill - Mount Mushmore - Old Demontooth - Omelet - Pizen Bluff - Shacktown - Studious Hours Prison ...

If you wish to see in which stories the sights were presented or wish to see complete text lists of all the named Calisotan sights Barks mentioned, you can go HERE (look under Locations). - If you wish to see some of the sights Barks drew, you can go HERE.