Herndon (formerly, Sycamore) 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 ...

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

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 ...

. It is located northwest of downtown

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

, at an elevation of 299 feet (91 m).

History

Herndon began as a steamboat landing on the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

called Sycamore Point. It was the year round head of navigation on that river. Sycamore Point was where the steamboats landed supplies for Fort Miller and later the town of Millerton. There was also a ferry on the river near the location from the 1860s until the 1880s. The settlement grew around Sycamore Station after the railroad built a bridge over the river nearby into the town of Sycamore in 1872. The first town post office, was called Palo Blanco while it lasted from September 3, 1872, to September 4, 1873.Frickstad, Walter N., A Century of California Post Offices 1848-1954, Philatelic Research Society, Oakland, CA. 1955, Pages 30-39 The failure of an irrigation project crippled the growth of the town. It was not until 1887 that the Herndon post office opened and closed in 1893, and re-opened in 1907.Wallace W. Elliot, History of Fresno County, California: With Illustrations from Original Drawings ... with Biographical Sketches, Wallace W. Elliot & Co., San Francisco, 1882; reprinted by Valley Publishers, Fresno, 1973.Paul E. Vandor, History of Fresno County, California: With Biographical Sketches, Volume 1, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1919

References

Unincorporated communities in California Unincorporated communities in Fresno County, California Populated places established in 1872 1872 establishments in California {{FresnoCountyCA-geo-stub