White River is a little

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. ...

, ten miles east of

Delano, California Delano ( ) is a city in Kern County, California, United States. Delano is located north-northwest of Bakersfield at an elevation of . The population was 51,428 in 2020, down from 53,041 in 2010. It is Kern County's second-largest city after Ba ...

, United States. It was founded as a gold camp in 1856, during the Kern River Gold Rush. It was first located on the Coarse Gold Gulch two miles west of the present site and was called Dogtown. When the first road was built to Linn's Valley, Dogtown was moved a mile and a half west to the road. Its name was changed to Tailholt after one of the first stagecoaches to stop in town provided the new name, due to a humorous incident. It involved a lady passenger on the stagecoach who grabbed the tail of her dog as it jumped out the window in pursuit of a cat. She hung on screaming for help until the owner of the local restaurant, Mother Cummings, came to her rescue. While she was lifting the dog through the window of the coach she said, "Well Ma'am, a tail-holt is better than a no holt at all". The coach driver, Yank, on his return to Visalia told the postmaster and keeper of the stage station there that the new name of the town was Tailholt. Its name was later changed to the more respectable White River. Among the points of interest are two cemeteries, one north of the river for regular citizens, and a small one, the Tailholt Boot Hill Cemetery, south of the river for those the town did not want in their cemetery, such as Jack Gordon (formerly Peter Worthington), who died violently in a gunfight and was a known member of the

Mason Henry Gang The Mason Henry Gang were bandits operating in Central and Southern California in 1864–1865. As the Civil War was in progress, they were able to pose as Confederate Partisan Rangers, and their original mission was to rid the area of (anti-slave ...

. Jack Peter Worthington Gordon
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References

External links

Google Maps;"White River, California"

USGS Topographic Quadrangle Map - White River, California (Folded/Waterproof)States White River Map - Multimap
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Tulare County, California Unincorporated communities in California