Kerman is located 15 miles (24 km) west of Fresno,[9] at an elevation of 220 feet (67 m).

[7] Around 1891, the Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a new line between Tracy and Fresno.

After some months, he resigned his job, not because of the work, he said, but because it was too lonesome and he was tired of being a hermit.

Evans and John Sontag became fugitives for ten months before they were captured in 1893 in what is called the Battle of Stone Corral.

John Sontag died of his wounds in custody, and Chris Evans was also sent to Folsom upon his conviction of the crime.

The arid, barren land around Kerman seemed to be a good venture, so that happened to be the allotment for Fresno County.

The property here attracted the attention of two Los Angeles capitalists, William G. Kerckhoff and Jacob Mansar, who saw a chance to purchase a plentiful water supply from the newly constructed Enterprise Canal, which had its source in the Kings River.

The men combined the first three letters of each of their names and christened the area "Kerman."

[9] The Collis post office was opened in 1894, closed in 1899, re-established in 1904, and renamed Kerman in 1906.

[11] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.2 square miles (8.3 km2), all of it land.

At the 2000 census there were 8,551 people in 2,389 households, including 1,994 families, in the city.