Some valley towns are familiar exits on big highways. Others are a little more out of the way. We explore the story of one of the latter, the Kings County town of Avenal, today on KVPR's Central Valley Roots.
Separated from the rest of the Central Valley by the Kettleman Hills, Avenal sits along Highway 33, between Coalinga and Reef Station in western Kings County. Early Spanish explorers encountered thick fields of wild oats here which gave the future city its name – Avenal. The Spanish word for oats is avena. Tule elk and antelope used to graze in this area, and ranching was the primary business in the early days up until 1928.
That’s when a drilling crew struck oil at 7,000 feet in a blowout that was reportedly heard for as far as 30 miles. That set off an oil boom and the birth of the town of Avenal in 1929, a company town for Standard Oil. Avenal quickly became the second largest city in Kings County behind Hanford.
But what goes boom often goes bust, and declining oil production left Avenal depressed. Interstate 5 and the California Aqueduct gave the town a boost in the 1970s, but agriculture, and a state prison ultimately made a new foundation for the town’s economy. Today, the former Standard Oil town bills itself as the “Pistachio Capital of the World,” thanks to the thousands of acres in production near the city.
