On The Map: Friant

Charles Converse set up a ferry to cross the San Joaquin River in 1852.

He was also an engineer.

He is responsible for designing Fresno County’s first courthouse. 

That courthouse still stands today on the edge of Millerton Lake.

He sold his business to a guy named James Jones who expanded the ferry to include also a nearby hotel and a store.

And he called the growing town “Jonesville”.

He passed away a few years after that and his employee William Hampton took it over, bought a little more land, made a bigger hotel and a bigger store.

And he named the place “Hamptonville”.

Picking up on the theme here?

In 1891, Marcus Pollasky completed a rail line connecting Hamptonville to Fresno.

But because he completed that rail line, he renamed the town “Pollasky”.

No here’s where it gets dodgy.

He was supposed to complete another rail line to go from now Pollasky all the way up into the Sierra Nevada, for logging purposes.

He even gathered some investors, and they gave him $100,000 to complete that railway.

Well, once the railway got to Hamptonville construction suddenly stopped.

And when his investors came looking for him, they found his house empty.

Boarded up.

He was nowhere to be found.

Marcus Pollasky was never heard from again.

Well in 1907, it was time to change the name of the town again.

And the people who were in charge of doing that decided to honor one of the part owners of the White-Friant Lumber Company.

Thomas Friant was his name.

Now his namesake, Friant on the map of Fresno County.

Oh by the way, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Friant Dam.

Its construction began in 1937 and was completed in 1942.

With Josh Dean behind the camera, I’m A.J. Fox.