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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.

Tulare County, California

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

County Seat: Visalia
Year Organized: 1852
Square Miles: 4,824

Court House:

2800 West Burrel
County Civic Center
Visalia, CA 93291-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

While hunting for deserters in 1772, Commandante Fages discovered a great lake surrounded by marshes and filled with rushes which he named Los Tules (the tules). It is from this lake that the county derives its name. The root of the name Tulare is found in the Mexican word tullin, designating cattail or similar reeds.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Created in 1852 at the same time Siskiyou and Sierra counties were designated, the large area was maintained until 1856, when Fresno County was created from territory taken from Tulare, Mariposa and Merced counties. In 1861 part of the eastern territory was cut off and joined with parts of Fresno, Mariposa and Calaveras in forming Mono County. Kern County, cut from the southern part of Tulare, was originated as Buena Vista County in 1855, but was not officially termed Kern until 1866. All that portion of Tulare lying east of the Sierras, with a portion of Mono, was set apart for Coso County in 1864, the name being changed to Inyo County in 1866. In 1872 the southern boundaries of Tulare and Inyo were changed by placing them on the sixth standard parallel south of Mount Diablo, thus drawing a direct line across the state, which still forms the northern boundary of San Luis Obispo, Kern and San Bernardino counties. In 1874 the Fresno-Tulare line was re-formed, placing the boundary along township and section lines rather than along the mountain ridges as theretofore. In 1875-76 another slight change in the Fresno-Tulare line was made, returning to Fresno five square townships, this boundary continuing to the present time. In 1893 Kings County was created from the western part of Tulare.

Within the confines of Tulare County are now 4,863 square miles, or 3,158,400 acres. Were the state of Connecticut lifted bodily from the Atlantic Seaboard and transported westward, it could be set down in California, but it would not quite succeed in covering Tulare County.

The county has an interesting historical aura which dates back to 1770. The first Americans to visit the valley came after 1800. The settling of the country about Visalia, the creation of the county, the struggles of the early settlers, the wars with the Indians, and the growth and development of the country present an interesting story which can be found in a number of the published histories for the county.

Geography

Tulare County, California is one of the largest counties in the great and fertile San Joaquin Valley. Geographically it is situated about midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the two principal cities of the Pacific Slope.

The county, with vast mountain masses covering nearly half of its area on the eastern side and the balance of its expanse a level and remarkably fertile plain, originally extended from Mariposa County, on the north, to the Los Angeles County line, on the south, and from the summit of the Coast Range Mountains, on the west, to the summit of the Sierra Nevadas on the east.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Inyo County
South: Kern County
West: Kings County
Northwest: Fresno County

Cities and Towns:

- Corcoran	city	Incorporated Area
- Dinuba	city	Incorporated Area
- Exeter	city	Incorporated Area
- Farmersville	city	Incorporated Area
- Lindsay	city	Incorporated Area
- Porterville	city	Incorporated Area
- Tulare	city	Incorporated Area
- Visalia (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Woodlake	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

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."