Historical Marker · No. 488
Fresno City
Kerman, Fresno County · California
Erected by California State Parks; Fresno County Historical Society, 1952
The plaque sends a reader the wrong way. It says the city of Fresno was founded in 1872 about thirty miles to the southwest, and the city lies about thirty miles east of here. The line is the state register's own, still printed that way, and it carried over when the long-missing bronze was recast in 2021. Fresno City itself stood five miles southwest of this spot, on both banks of Fresno Slough at its head of navigation, from about 1855 to 1875, and nothing of it remains. The slough still runs past it.
What the plaque says
Site of Fresno City Five miles southwesterly from this point, on both sides of Fresno Slough, is the site of Fresno City. Fresno City gradually arose at the head of navigation of Fresno Slough and existed from approximately 1855 to 1875. The town served as a station for the Butterfield Overland Mail stages that carried the first overland mail on a regular schedule between St. Louis and San Francisco. Today there are no traces of Fresno City. In 1872, the current city of Fresno, later the county seat, was established about thirty miles to the southwest, on the newly built Central Pacific Railroad. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 488 Plaque placed by California State Parks in cooperation with the Fresno County Historical Society, May 4, 1952. Rededicated by the Bill Beaver Project and the California Landmark Foundation, June 19, 2021.
Where it stands
36.73438, -120.21139 · Directions