Some Valley towns have pretty straightforward names, with established histories. Others have stories that are somewhat opaque, or even origins that are disputed. We hear one of those today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, with the story of Dinuba.
Located near the far northern edge of Tulare County, Dinuba has been an important site of agriculture and commerce since 1888. But historians simply don’t agree on how and why the town got its name.
A few things are clear. The town was started in 1888 by the Pacific Improvement Company, the land development arm of the Southern Pacific Railroad. That year, James Sibley sold the company land to start the town.
Many history books says the town was originally named Sibleyville in his honor. But the first railroad timetable and county maps show the name as being Dinuba by late 1888. The company advertised the new town as having plenty of water for irrigation and no alkali. That was an attempt to lure people from nearby Traver, which was beginning to struggle, after irrigation brought alkali to the soil’s surface, harming crops. Soon most of Traver's population moved to Dinuba, including the Alta Irrigation District and Dinuba became a thriving community.
But where did the name come from? One historian said a company official named it after an ancient battlefield, but that seems unlikely. Others have suggested that "Dih-nuba" was a reference to the region around the Danube River, where 5,000 years ago the Danubian civilization began to harvest wheat. But the most commonly accepted story is that the name is a mashup of the names of two early teamsters, Dinsmore and Uballis. We may never know for sure, but over a century later, Dinuba is still thriving.
