Porterville was originally settled by prospectors during the great gold rush days in California. Lured by the chance of a new beginning, Royal Porter Putnam came to the area from Pennsylvania to try his luck in the west. He originally was “stationed” about 10 miles east of the Porterville area at the Packwood Station. Another station on the Tule River was managed by Charles Putnam.

Around 1863, he eventually purchased land and built a store and inn. As a requirement of marriage…the future Mrs. Putnam told him he needed to build her a home and have a business to support them or no deal. Well…we know what path he chose. They eventually married in 1864. Being the astute businessman, Mr. Putnam easily took a prominent place in the small village.

The reason Porterville is named after his given name and not his last name is because there were two Putnams on Tule River at the time. If you were living around Tulare County in that era and you wanted to meet someone or send something to Tule River, you said, "Meet me at Putnam’s place" then the next question would be “Which one? Charles or Porter?” Therefore a distinction had to be made as to which one. So then you would have to say, "Charles's place or Porter's place."

Charles Putnam eventually left for Arizona in 1866 and thus Porter's Place became Portersville with the extra letter "s". In about 1914 the "s" was dropped from the cancellation stamp and thus became Porterville.

Porterville was fast becoming a gateway between larger communities that were developing in the San Joaquin Valley of central California. Some of these travelers stayed, noticing the potential in the rich soil for creating agricultural farming venues.

Porterville had its share of the wild west, with famous outlaws passing through and sometimes hiding out in the foothills such as Grant Dalton and the Dalton Gang, Christopher Evans and John Sontag; the notorious Black Bart; bandito Tiburcio Vasquez; ex-convict and murderer Jim McKinney; and murderer James McCrory.

Porterville townfolk also had skirmishes between the local native American Indians (whose reservation was originally located in what is now East Porterville at the site of present-day Alta Vista School.) The Tule River Reservation was later established on the South Fork of the Tule River. Its location must have seemed much more distant in the horse and buggy days of 1873. Today, the reservation can be reached by way of a windy mountain road. Its headquarters is located about 17 miles outside of Porterville.


The town became incorporated in 1902, as miners moved into the area to extract magnetite ore, and the Porterville Chamber of Commerce was formed in 1907. Porterville city leaders had hired law enforcement and other necessary personnel to help manage a growing town.
Agriculture supplemented by the Central Valley Water Project has been the major source of economic growth in the area. The City is the center of a large farming area noted especially for citrus and livestock.
Porterville, lying along the foothills of the Sierras at an elevation of 455 feet, is located on State Highway 65, 165 miles north of Los Angeles, 171 miles east of the Pacific Coast. The City has a strategic central location to major markets and a ready access to major transportation routes.