Madera

History

Madera was founded in 1876 as a lumber town at the terminus of a flume constructed by the California Lumber Company. The town's name, meaning "wood" in Spanish, reflected its timber-based economy. In October 1876, company president William H. Thurman auctioned the first town lots, and Capt. Russell Perry Mace erected Madera's first building—the Yosemite Hotel—to serve travelers bound for Yosemite Valley. A sixty-mile wooden V-flume carried rough-cut lumber from sawmills in the Sierra Nevada to Madera's railroad planing mill. The first boards traveled the flume in 1877, the same year Madera's post office opened. Thousands gathered on October 27, 1900, to celebrate its completion with a citywide barbecue.—produced up to 50 million board feet of lumber per year, shipping products statewide by rail. Periodic fires plagued the mills, including a destructive 1922 blaze at the Sugar Pine camp, but operations continued until the onset of the Great Depression. Collapsing markets forced the company to end production in 1931; by 1933 its assets were liquidated, concluding nearly six decades of timber-driven growth. As the timber industry declined, agriculture became Madera's economic foundation. Farming had begun in the late nineteenth century, but the 1930s marked a decisive transition from sawmills to irrigated agriculture. During the Great Depression, many displaced lumber workers joined migrant farm laborers—including Dust Bowl refugees—who cultivated the region's orchards and vineyards. By the 1940s, Madera County's fruit and nut output rose sharply—up 27 percent from 1940 to 1945—as growers expanded vineyards, fig orchards, and peach groves, later diversifying into almonds, pistachios, cotton, and alfalfa. The post-war years brought new labor forces…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, Madera has a total area of , all of it land. Summers are long, hot, and arid, while winters are mild and relatively wet. Average highs exceed () on more than 100 days per year, and temperatures above () occur on nearly 30 days annually. The record high of was recorded on July 13, 1961, while the record low of occurred on January 10, 1949. |source 2 = National Weather Service }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• California/Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

  Aphelocoma californica (Vigors, 1839) · Aves
  1,908
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  1,791
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,600
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,391
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  1,390
• Red-tailed Hawk

  Buteo jamaicensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  1,232
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  1,167
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,145

Largest nearby schools

• Matilda Torres High
  High · Madera · 2,001 students · 23.3:1 ratio
• Madera South High
  High · Madera · 1,994 students · 22.4:1 ratio
• Madera High
  High · Madera · 1,858 students · 23.5:1 ratio
• Thomas Jefferson Middle
  Middle · Madera · 968 students · 19.8:1 ratio
• Martin Luther King Jr. Middle
  Middle · Madera · 919 students · 20:1 ratio
• Lincoln Elementary
  Elementary · Madera · 855 students · 23.8:1 ratio
• Jack G. Desmond Middle
  Middle · Madera · 761 students · 18.6:1 ratio
• Berenda Elementary
  Elementary · Madera · 752 students · 23.5:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.51 — 2026-09-24
  4 km ENE of Orange Cove, CA
• M 2.54 — 2026-08-28
  22 km SE of Yosemite Valley, CA
• M 2.6 — 2026-08-26
  11 km NNW of Corcoran, CA
• M 3.34 — 2026-08-04
  10 km NNE of Kettleman City, CA
• M 2.93 — 2026-07-12
  13 km S of New Idria, CA
• M 2.55 — 2026-07-12
  13 km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA