Hanford

Sister cities

• Setana

History

Hanford was once north of Tulare Lake, historically the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River. The area was inhabited by the Tachi Yokuts Indians for several thousand years prior to Euro-American contact. They occupied locations along watercourses such as creeks, springs and seep areas (such as sloughs), along perennial and seasonal drainages, as well as flat ridges and terraces. Since the annexation of California after the Mexican-American War, the locality was settled by Americans and immigrants as farmland, broadly referred to as "Mussel Slough". The earliest dated grave in the area was that of a young Alice Spangler who was initially buried in the Kings River Cemetery just north of her family's farm in 1860. As the settlement grew, Tulare Lake's feeding rivers were diverted for agricultural irrigation, causing it to gradually shrink and, over the 19th and 20th centuries, dry up. From the mid-to-late 1870s, the Southern Pacific Railroad planned to lay tracks towards the developing farmland west of Visalia, spurring a growth in labor and population. Hanford's namesake was James Madison Hanford, an executive for the company. The earliest known document labeling the settlement as "Hanford" is an 1876 map of Tulare County which once included the territory of present-day Kings County. Tracks were laid through a sheep camp in 1877. According to History of Kings County: "It was but a short step from sheep-camp to village and with the railroad as an attraction the village flourished and became a town within a few historic months." Many of those working on the tracks were Chinese immigrants. In 1877, Hanford began to appear in state newspapers, giving details of events in the town's early days. In 1878, Hanford began running their own newspaper service…

Geography

Hanford is situated in the south-central portion of California's San Joaquin Valley, south-southeast of the city of Fresno and west of the city of Visalia. The city is above sea level and has a flat terrain. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Hanford's land was once a drainage basin for Tulare Lake. Hanford has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) typical of the San Joaquin Valley floor with sweltering, dry summers and cool winters characterized by dense tule fog. The wetter season occurs from November through March. The average annual rainfall over the ten years from 1997/98 through 2006/07 was , although the wettest "rain year" from July 1968 to June 1969 totalled and the driest from July 2013 to June 2014 only . The wettest month has been January 1969 with , and the wettest day February 24, 2023 with . Hanford falls within USDA plant hardiness zones 9a () and 9b (). The coldest temperature on record has been on January 6 and January 7, 1913. ;Notes:

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  961
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  915
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  854
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  824
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  821
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  815
• California/Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

  Aphelocoma californica (Vigors, 1839) · Aves
  764
• Black Phoebe

  Sayornis nigricans (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  731

Most recent

• M 2.55 — 2026-10-04
  9 km WSW of Corcoran, CA
• M 2.51 — 2026-09-24
  4 km ENE of Orange Cove, CA
• M 2.6 — 2026-08-26
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• M 2.75 — 2026-08-23
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• M 2.85 — 2026-08-21
  8 km WNW of Corcoran, CA
• M 3.34 — 2026-08-04
  10 km NNE of Kettleman City, CA