Kings of cows and cotton
By Joshua Tehee / Discover Staff WriterA quick drive to Hanford, or further south, down toward Lemoore, will tell a lot about Kings County — vast swaths of farmland, cotton, corn and dairies. Lots of dairies.
Kings County was formed from the western half of Tulare County in 1893, and has grown to include four incorporated communities — Avenal, Corcoran, Hanford and Lemoore — with a population around 141,000. Unincorporated communities include Armona, Grangeville, Kettleman City and Stratford. It is largely an agricultural area, with 86 percent of its total acreage as farm land.
History
Kings is a county built around the railroad. Its first incorporated community, Lemoore, thrived in part because of the Southern Pacific, which arrived in the area in 1877. The county seat, Hanford, was named after Southern Pacific paymaster James Madison Hanford. When Corcoran was built in 1905, it was along the San Francisco and San Joaquin railroads.
A sense of history remains important in the county.
Just walk downtown Hanford. The city has won several awards for its preservation of the area.
The Chamber of Commerce touts a self-guided walking tour that includes 18 historical sites, including the Amtrak depot building, built in 1897, the original Kings County Courthouse and the Kings County Jail — now a nightclub that is said to be haunted.
Agriculture
From the beginning, Kings County’s economy was built around agriculture. Dairy, grapes, cotton, fruit and nuts quickly became important crops.
Indeed, the area is ripe for agriculture, with sparse mountain and forest regions, says the county’s ag commissioner Tim Niswander. Today, 749,100 of the county’s 890,545 total acreage is used for ag.
Agriculture is the county’s No. 1 industry. Its crop values ranked ninth in the state in 2005, Niswander says. “Yeah, it’s kind of important.”
Especially dairies, which can be found throughout the county. Stratford has two on one street.
Cotton is also big business. J.G. Boswell, the nation’s largest cotton producer, has major farming operations that employ almost 400 workers near Corcoran. And while the business side of agriculture is always growing — every time there is a new regulation, it parlays into affiliated businesses, Niswander says. The face of farming in the county may soon be changing, with the average age of farmers reaching into the upper 50s. Many are into their 70s, he says.
Business and retail
Though agriculture is big business, government is the largest employer for the county — that includes correction facilities in Corcoran and Avenal, various city and county entities, and the Lemoore Naval Air station, which offers close to 7,000 enlisted and civilian jobs.
But agriculture, and its related businesses, follows a close second, say John Lehn, president and CEO for the County Economic Development Corp. That includes several large food processors like Marquez Bros., Del Monte and SK Food, which operate in the area. Laprino Foods, a world leader in premium-quality cheese manufacturing and the largest U.S. exporter of whey products, has two plants in Lemoore.
Hanford has the ability to act as a regional hub, and Lehn says he is seeing interest from the Bay Area and Los Angeles — and Orange County-area companies — that are interested in moving to Kings County. There are already several large manufacturing facilities within the county, including Mid State Precasting and Exopac Inc.
On the retail end, the county is known for long-existing mom-and-pop shops, like Miller’s Jewelry in Hanford. But retail development has exploded in the last several years, Lehn says. That includes a large retail corridor at 12th Avenue and Lacy Boulevard in Hanford, which has added around 700,000 square feet of retail space within the city.
Homes and real estate
The housing market in Kings County is in a holding pattern of sorts, says Dick Jacques, president of the Kings County Board of Realtors. Buyers are waiting for sellers to come down from what had been a housing boom, he says. That’s nothing unique for markets in the area, he says, and he doesn’t see change coming for the next couple of years.
Prices range from $75,000 in Corcoran, to $500,000 and up in Hanford, according to information from the Economic Development Corp.
Recreation
Fun times can be had in Kings County both outdoors — the county is close to both the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Pacific Coast — and in.
The Tachi Palace, located just outside Lemoore, has a 250-room hotel, gaming events like World Series of Poker satellite tournaments, and music in its outdoor pavilion and inside the bingo hall. Avenal hosts world-class sand drags, which attract hundreds of cars and participants to the area each spring. Hanford’s Fox Theater, once used for vaudeville and silent films in the 1920s, now hosts community, cultural and musical events.
Culture and events
For the arts and culturally minded, Kings County is home to several arts organizations like the Kings County Art League, Kings Art Guild and Kings County Symphony Orchestra. Museums in the area include Carnegie Museum, the Kings Art Center, the Kings County Museum at Burris Park and The Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art. The Lee Institute was founded by Elizabeth and Willard Clark and holds many paintings, sculpture and decorative arts, representing artistic activity in Japan from the 10th to the 21st century.
Annual events include the Kings County Fair, Kings County Homecoming and a Renaissance Fair that takes place in Hanford’s Courthouse Park.