Chowchilla, California

AT A GLANCE CHOWCHILLA, CALIFORNIA WHAT: A city of 18,000 WHERE: Madera County in central California WEBSITE: www.cityofchowchilla.org C howchilla is a city of 18,000 in Madera County, California, incorporated in 1923. The name is presumably derived from the Chaushila tribe of the Yokut Indian nation, though spellings vary. It was almost named “Lone Oak,” after the single tree that stood near the airstrip in those early days. Though Chowchilla lies in the center of California, and beside the main lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad, it was not the outgrowth of a geographic or economic need. It was, in fact, the result of the thinking and planning of one man, Orlando Alison Robertson, who was most responsible for the creation of the city. Having bought large tracts of land between Minnesota and California along the rail lines, O. A. Robertson organized the United States Farm Land Company in 1910, to jump start development in California’s San Joaquin Valley by transforming the land into “prosperous farms owned by happy people.” Against the advice of financial counselors, he put all his money into the Chowchilla project, purchasing the Chowchilla Ranch from the California Pastoral and Agricultural Company