Map - Visalia, California (Visalia)

Visalia is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in the United States. As the county seat of Tulare County, Visalia serves as the economic and governmental center to one of the most productive agricultural counties in the country.

Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks are located in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains, the highest mountain range within the contiguous United States. Visalia is 36 mi west of Sequoia National Park, and 43 mi south of Fresno.

The area around Visalia was first settled by the Yokuts and Mono Native American tribes hundreds of years ago. When the first Europeans arrived is unknown, but the first to make a written record of the area was Pedro Fages in 1722.

When California achieved statehood in 1850, Tulare County did not exist. The land that is now Tulare County was part of the vast County of Mariposa. In 1852, some pioneers settled in the area, then called Four Creeks. The area got its name from the many watershed creeks and rivers flowing from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. All the water resulted in a widespread swampy area with a magnificent oak forest. The industrious group of settlers petitioned the state legislature for county status, and on July 10 of that same year, Tulare County became a reality.

One of the first inhabitants of a fort built by the settlers was Nathaniel Vise, who was responsible for surveying the new settlement. In November 1852, he wrote, "The town contains from 60–80 inhabitants, 30 of whom are children of school age. The town is located upon one of the subdivisions of the Kaweah River and is destined to be the county seat of Tulare." In 1853, that prediction became a reality and Visalia has remained the county seat since that time. Visalia is named for Nathaniel Vise's ancestral home, Visalia, Kentucky.

Early growth in Visalia can be attributed in part to the gold rush along the Kern River. The gold fever brought many transient miners through Visalia along the way, and when the lure of gold failed to materialize, many returned to Visalia to live their lives and raise families. In 1859, Visalia was added to John Butterfield's Overland Stage route from St. Louis to San Francisco. A plaque commemorating the location can be found at 116 East Main Street. Included in the early citizens were some notorious and nasty individuals who preyed upon the travelers along the Butterfield Stage route. Many saloons and hotels sprouted up around the stage stop downtown and commerce was brisk if a bit risky.

The next memorable event was the arrival of the telegraph in 1860. Visalians then could get timely information of the events taking place on the East Coast that would ultimately develop into the Civil War. During the war, many citizens of Visalia could not decide whether Visalia should stand on the side of the North or the South, so they simply had a mini Civil War of their own on Main Street. No one really knows the outcome of the war, but apparently it was concluded to the satisfaction of the participants and life returned to normal. The federal government, however, was not so easily convinced, and reacting to concern about sedition, banned Visalia's pro-South Equal Rights Expositor newspaper and established a military garrison. Camp Babbitt was built in 1862 to stop overt Southern support and maintain law and order in the community. During these Civil War years, Visalia was incorporated, which gave the town new rights.

The second incorporation in 1874 moved Visalia into city status with a common council and an ex-officio mayor and president. In 1893, the train bandits and murderers John Sontag and Chris Evans were apprehended, badly wounded, outside Visalia in what is called the Battle of Stone Corral. Sontag died three weeks later in police custody in Fresno; Evans was sent to Folsom State Prison. In 1904, the Visalia Electric Railroad was incorporated.

In October 1933, Visalia was the site of a fact-finding committee appointed by Governor James Rolph and charged with investigating labor violence in the San Joaquin cotton strike. Labor activist Caroline Decker led hundreds of strikers in a march on the courthouse, and led the questioning of strikers during the investigation. In the mid-1970s, the area was known for the serial burglaries of the then unidentified Visalia Ransacker. More recently, Visalia served as a host city for the Amgen Tour of California in 2009 and 2010.