Kings County, California

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Kings County, California

Map
Location in the state of California
California's location in the U.S.
Statistics
Founded	1893
Seat	Hanford
Area - Total - Land - Water	1,391 sq mi (3,603 km²) 1,391 sq mi (3,603 km²) 0 sq mi (0 km²), 0.04%
Population - (2008) - Density	154,434 110/sq mi (42/km²)
Website: www.countyofkings.com

Kings County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is located in a rich agricultural region. Kings County is also home to NAS Lemoore, which is the U.S. Navy's newest and largest master jet air station. The county seat is Hanford. Kings County is part of the Hanford - Corcoran Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA Code 25260). The population was 129,461 at the time of the 2000 U.S. Census. However, the California Department of Finance estimates that the county's population had grown to 154,434 as of January 1, 2008.^[1]

1 History
2 Historic sites
3 Geography
4 Transportation
5 Demographics
6 Government
7 Politics
8 References
9 External links

[edit] History

Kings County was formed in 1893 from the western part of Tulare County. In 1909 a triangular area of 118 square miles (306 km²) was taken from Fresno County and added to Kings County [1]

The county derives its name from the Kings River, which was discovered in 1806 by an expedition led by Spanish Army Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga and named Rio de los Santos Reyes (River of the Holy Kings).

[edit] Historic sites

Kingston
Mussel Slough Tragedy
El Adobe de los Robles Rancho built by Daniel Rhoads

[edit] Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,391 square miles (3,604 km²), of which, 1,391 square miles (3,603 km²) of it is land and 0 square miles (1 km²) of it (0.04%) is water.

Kings County is bordered on the north and northwest by Fresno County, on the east by Tulare County, on the south by Kern County and a small part of San Luis Obispo County and on the west by Monterey County.

Most of the historic Tulare Lake was within Kings County. Although reclaimed for farming late in the 19th Century, it was once was considered to be the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes.

[edit] Cities and towns

[edit] Rural communities

Grangeville
Hardwick
Island District

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Major highways

[edit] Public transportation

Kings Area Rural Transit (KART) operates regularly scheduled fixed route bus service, vanpool service for commuters and Dial-A-Ride (demand response) services throughout Kings County as well as to Fresno [2].

Amtrak trains stop in Corcoran and Hanford.

Orange Belt Stages provides inter-city bus service to and from Hanford. Connections with Greyhound can be made in Visalia or Paso Robles.

[edit] Airports

Hanford Municipal Airport is a general aviation airport located just southeast of Hanford. The privately-owned airport in Avenal is the home of the Central California Soaring Club.^[2]

[edit] Demographics

As of the 2000 census, there were 129,461 people, 34,418 households, and 26,983 families residing in the county. However, the California Department of Finance estimates that the population had grown to 149,758 as of July 1, 2006 ^[3]. The population density based on the 2000 census was 36/km² (93/sq mi). There were 36,563 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile (10/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 53.68% White, 8.30% Black or African American, 1.68% Native American, 3.07% Asian, 0.19% Pacific Islander, 28.28% from other races, and 4.79% from two or more races. 43.61% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 7.1% were of Portuguese, 6.2% German, 5.3% Irish and 5.1% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 63.6% spoke English, 30.9% Spanish, 1.4% Tagalog, 1.4% Portuguese and 1.3% Samoan as their first language.

There were 34,418 households out of which 46.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.0% were married couples living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.6% were non-families. 17.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.18 and the average family size was 3.56.

In the county the population was spread out with 29.0% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 35.0% from 25 to 44, 16.8% from 45 to 64, and 7.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 134.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 148.8 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $35,749, and the median income for a family was $38,111. Males had a median income of $31,700 versus $24,772 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,848. About 15.8% of families and 19.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.9% of those under age 18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over. Kings County has the lowest per capita income in the state of California.^[4]

[edit] Government

Kings County is a general law county under the California Constitution. That is, it does not have a county charter. The county is governed by a five-member Board of Supervisors. Supervisors are elected by districts for four-year terms. There are no term limits in effect. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are elected annually by the Board of Supervisors from among its members. On January 8, 2008, the Board elected Supervisor Joe Neves as Chairman and Supervisor Jon Rachford as Vice-Chairman to serve during 2008. Other Supervisors include Tony Oliveira, Alene Taylor and Tony Barba.^[5]

The Board of Supervisors appoints a County Administrative Officer. Currently, that office is held by Larry Spikes.^[6]

[edit] Politics

**Presidential election results**
Year	GOP	DEM	Others
2004	65.4% 21,003	33.7% 10,833	0.9% 274
2000	57.8% 16,377	39.0% 11,041	3.2% 917
1996	47.9% 12,368	43.6% 11,254	8.5% 2,193
1992	41.6% 10,673	38.9% 9,982	19.5% 4,996
1988	56.4% 12,118	42.6% 9,142	1.0% 222
1984	64.1% 13,364	35.1% 7,324	0.8% 160
1980	55.4% 10,531	38.4% 7,299	6.3% 1,191
1976	49.7% 8,263	48.4% 8,061	1.9% 318
1972	56.5% 10,509	39.1% 7,274	4.4% 812
1968	43.1% 7,796	47.8% 8,643	9.2% 1,662
1964	30.5% 5,753	69.4% 13,073	0.1% 14
1960	42.3% 6,991	57.1% 9,439	0.6% 92

In January 2008, the Kings County Clerk reported that of 45,444 registered voters, 21,685 were Republicans and 16,664 were Democrats.^[7]

Kings has long been a strongly Republican county in Presidential elections. The last Democratic candidate for President to win a majority in the county was Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Kings County is part of California's California's 20th congressional district, which is held by Jim Costa. The county is represented in the California State Senate by Dean Florez and in the California State Assembly by Nicole Parra. All three legislators are members of the Democratic Party.

[edit] References

^ California Department of Finance, Table E-1, State/County Population Estimates with Annual Percent Change, May 2008
^ http://www.soaravenal.com/ accessed 1-13-08
^ California Department of Finance, Table E-2, California County Population Estimates and Percent Change, Revised July 1, 2000 through Provisional July 1, 2006
^ US Department of Commerce Study, 2003
^ http://www.countyofkings.com/bos/agendas.htm accessed 1-13-08
^ http://www.countyofkings.com/admin/index.htm accessed 1-13-08
^ Hanford Sentinel, January 13, 2008