Badger is an

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 ...

located in

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. ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

at an elevation of 3,038 feet. It has a population of 140. The zip code is 93603 and the

area code 559 Area code 559 is a California telephone area code that was split from area code 209 on November 14, 1998. It covers the central San Joaquin Valley in central California, serving the counties of Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare—an area large ...

. It is normally reached by

California State Route 245 State Route 245 (SR 245) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs from near Exeter to near Kings Canyon National Park. It connects State Route 198 in Tulare County to State Route 180 in Fresno County. It run ...

. It is in the Cutler-Orosi Unified School District; High-school-aged students who live in Badger must ride a

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

for about to attend school.

Government

In the California State Legislature, Badger is in , and in . In the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

, Badger is in

Popular culture

Badger was featured in an early 1970s

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

commercial in which it is claimed that a Visalia McDonald's served the entire population of the town for . The population was 15 at the time of filming this commercial.

History

In the 1970s and the 1980s, the controversial organization

Synanon Synanon is a US-founded social organization created by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich Sr. in 1958 in Santa Monica, California, United States. It is currently active in Germany. Originally established as a drug rehabilitation program, by the early ...

operated a residential compound on nearby Dry Creek Road. Badger was in the national news in October 1978 when the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

served a search warrant at this site in connection with a deliberate rattlesnake attack on attorney Paul Morantz who was critical of the organization. An African-American Muslim community named Baladullah occupied the former Synanon site from 1989 through 2002. In 2020, the local newspaper reported that the former compound of the cult will become vacation rentals.

References

External links

* Unincorporated communities in Tulare County, California Unincorporated communities in California {{TulareCountyCA-geo-stub