At just over a century old, Fort Washington is one of Fresno’s oldest golf courses. But its name is connected to a history that dates back over 175 years. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots – the history of the original Fort Washington.
This story begins in 1846, in the waning days of Mexican control of California. Early that year, Alta California Governor Pio Pico awarded General José Castro a land grant on the San Joaquin River. It covered 48,000 acres on both sides of the river, from present day Friant to Herndon, where Highway 99 crosses the San Joaquin River. He called his grant Rancho Rio del San Joaquin.
Castro was the commanding general of Mexican forces in Alta California during the Bear Flag Revolt and the Mexican American War. San Francisco's Castro District is named after him. In 1850 California joined the Union as the 31st state. That same year, Castro decided to subdivide portions of his grant along the San Joaquin River. Likely seeking to curry favor with the new American interests, he dubbed his venture the “City of Washington.”
Castro's planned "city" never went materialized. But when white settlers built a small log fort along the San Joaquin River in 1850 on Castro’s land, they went with the name, and called it Fort Washington. It was built to protect travelers along the Stockton to Kings River Road, which crossed the river here near the fort at Cassity’s Ferry.
Fort Washington was likely the first building in Fresno County, predating Fort Miller at Millerton. Fort Washington was destroyed in a flood around 1852, and the exact location isn’t known, but it was somewhere between Woodward Park and Copper Avenue. The fort would later lend its name to a road, a beach, a school and the golf course which we know today.
Castro would go on to become Governor of Baja California. He died in 1860, the same year that United States Supreme Court ruled that Castro’s land grant on the San Joaquin River was invalid.
