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Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo, Yuba

California Counties

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California Counties

The U.S. state of California is divided into fifty-eight counties. On January 4, 1850, the California constitutional committee recommended the formation of 18 counties. They were Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mount Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Sutter. On April 22, the Counties of Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba were added. Benicia was renamed Solano, Coloma to El Dorado, Fremont to Yola, Mt. Diablo to Contra Costa, San Jose to Santa Clara, Oro to Tuolumne, and Redding to Shasta. One of the first state legislative acts regarding Counties was to rename Branciforte County to Santa Cruz, Colusi to Colusa, and Yola to Yolo.

The last California county to have been established is Imperial County in 1907.

Fresno County, California

Fresno County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Fresno
Year Organized: 1856
Square Miles: 5,963

Court House:

1100 Van Ness Avenue
County Courthouse
Fresno, CA 93721-2016

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named after Fresno Creek. Fresno in Spanish signifies "ash tree" and it was because of the abundance of mountain ash or ash trees in the county that it received its name.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Fresno County was formed in 1856 from parts of Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties. Parts of Fresno County's territory were given to Mono County in 1861 and to Madera County in 1893. The original county seat was placed in Millerton.

The county is named after Fresno Creek. Fresno in Spanish signifies "ash tree" and it was due to the abundance of mountain ash or ash trees in the county that it received its name.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 6,017 square miles (15,585 km²), of which, 5,963 square miles (15,443 km²) of it is land and 55 square miles (142 km²) of it (0.91%) is water.

Major watercourses are the San Joaquin, Kings River, Delta-Mendota Canal, Big Creek, Friant Kern Canal and Helm Canal. It is bordered on the west by the Coast Range and on the east by the Sierra Nevada. It is the center of a large agricultural area, known as the most agriculturally rich county in the United States. The county withdrew 3.7 billion gallons of fresh water per day in 2000, more than any other county in the United States.

Fresno was actually named after two particular ash trees that grew near the town of Minkler on the Kings River. One of the trees is still alive and standing.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Madera County
Northeast: Mono County
East: Inyo County
Southeast: Tulare County
South: Kings County
Southwest: Monterey County
West: San Benito County
Northwest: Merced County

Cities and Towns:

- Clovis	city	Incorporated Area
- Coalinga	city	Incorporated Area
- Firebaugh	city	Incorporated Area
- Fowler	city	Incorporated Area
- Fresno (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Huron	city	Incorporated Area
- Kerman	city	Incorporated Area
- Kingsburg	city	Incorporated Area
- Mendota	city	Incorporated Area
- Orange Cove	city	Incorporated Area
- Parlier	city	Incorporated Area
- Reedley	city	Incorporated Area
- San Joaquin	city	Incorporated Area
- Sanger	city	Incorporated Area
- Selma	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."