Two years after the station was established, county residents voted to move the county seat from Millerton to Fresno. Helm was the largest individual sheep grower in Fresno County.

By 1877, Helm made Fresno his home with a five-acre tract of land at the corner of Fresno and R streets.

In 1865, William Helm brought his sheep to Fresno county, which was then a vast space of open land. By 1931 the railway, now known as the Fresno Traction Company, operated 47 streetcars over 49 miles (79 km) of track. In 1903, the faltering San Joaquin Power Company was renamed the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation and included the Fresno City Water Company and the Fresno City Railway. Fresno became an incorporated city in 1885. Many Millerton residents, drawn by the convenience of the railroad and worried about flooding, moved to the new community. At that time, Mariposa street was the main artery, a rough dusty or muddy depression. Soon there was a store near the station and the store grew into the town of Fresno Station, later called Fresno. In 1872, the Central Pacific Railroad established a station near Easterby's-by now a hugely productive wheat farm-for its new Southern Pacific line. Building new canals and purchasing existing ditches, Church then formed the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company, a predecessor of the Fresno Irrigation District. Unable to grow wheat for lack of water, he hired sheep man Moses Church in 1870 to create an irrigation system. In 1867, Anthony Easterby purchased land bounded by the present Chestnut, Belmont, Clovis and California avenues, that today is called the Sunnyside district. Rebuilt on higher ground, Scottsburg was renamed Centerville. Flooding also destroyed the town of Scottsburg on the nearby Kings River that winter. The San Joaquin River flooded on December 24, 1867, inundating Millerton. The county of Fresno was formed in 1856 after the California Gold Rush and was named for the abundant ash trees (Spanish: fresno) lining the San Joaquin River. The first European to enter the San Joaquin Valley was Pedro Fages in 1772. The old Fresno County Courthouse, built in 1875 and demolished in 1966 The original inhabitants of the San Joaquin Valley region were the Yokuts people and Miwok people, who engaged in trading with other Californian tribes of Native Americans including coastal peoples such as the Chumash of the Central California coast, with whom they are thought to have traded plant and animal products. History įor a chronological guide, see Timeline of Fresno, California. Yosemite National Park is about 60 miles (100 km) to the north, Kings Canyon National Park 60 miles (100 km) to the east, and Sequoia National Park 75 miles (120 km) to the southeast.įresno is also the third-largest majority-Hispanic city in the United States with 50.5% of its population being Hispanic in 2020. Fresno is near the geographic center of California, approximately 220 miles (350 km) north of Los Angeles, 170 miles (270 km) south of the state capital, Sacramento, and 185 miles (300 km) southeast of San Francisco.

It has since become an economic hub of Fresno County and the San Joaquin Valley, with much of the surrounding areas in the Metropolitan Fresno region predominantly tied to large-scale agricultural production. Named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Fresno was founded in 1872 as a railway station of the Central Pacific Railroad before it was incorporated in 1885. It covers about 115 square miles (300 km 2) and had a population of 542,107 as of the 2020 Census, making it the fifth-most populous city in California, the most populous inland city in California, and the 33rd-most populous city in the nation. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region.

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