Lemoore (formerly, La Tache and Lee Moore's)[5] is a city in Kings County, California, United States.

Dr. Lovern Lee Moore first made his home in what was western Tulare County, California—now the City of Lemoore—in April 1871.

[a] The American pioneers from eastern states saw this as a stretch of vast virgin land on which sheep, horses and wild animals had grazed but had never been cultivated.

By the time Dr. Moore arrived, scores of individual farms dotted the landscape, but as Tulare Lake retreated, more became continually available.

The soil was rich and productive as it had been brought down and deposited for centuries from the high Sierras by the Kings River and the Los Gatos Creek alluvial fan from the Coast Range.

However, the pioneers were somewhat isolated, since they had to drive by horse as far as 6 miles (9.7 km) northeast to Grangeville settlement, to get mail or newspapers.

Even the area was called by various names, believed to be of Indian origin, such as Latache, Tailholt, or just, in English, the Lake District.

He decided to knit together the scores of surrounding farm families, to secure a post office, and some local center for conducting business which could be hastened by direct means of communicating with the outside world.

The first steps he took to organize a community began in early 1872, when he surveyed a 10-acre (40,000 m2) subdivision in what is now the land immediately west of the present Lemoore High School.

In August 1872 he had established the first real estate development in this district and had laid out and named the streets after other pioneer families.

Dr. Moore's home was believed to be situated where the grammar school playground on Bush Street is now located.

In addition to sales at the subdivision and putting in of streets, new buildings for homes and businesses began to arise.

This was the start of a real community, but it still lacked a school, a definitely accepted name, and a post office.

It was an important shipping point for wheat and wool, and not long afterwards became a center for fruit, but in its early period many fires retarded its growth.

The City of Lemoore had it remodeled in 1991, by Bill Phillips to add to the community an exciting 18-hole golf course.

The Federal Government acquired 1,466 acres (593 ha) for the Lemoore Basic Flying School in 1941–42.

At the extreme northern point of Tulare Lake was its natural, occasional "flood year" spillway northbound into Bogg Slough, Fresno Slough, and the San Joaquin River's watershed, onward to the sea at San Francisco Bay.

The present (2014) remaining marshy remnants of Bogg Slough, with its unfarmed oxbow structures may be the last of their kind to avoid the plow in the Kings-San Joaquin river system.

This "summit," or spillway is located just a few miles north-west of Lemoore, off Grangeville Blvd at elevation 210 feet (64 m).

[9] The spillway was wide, shallow and confusing, choked with tall tule rushes, and without observable landmarks.

Tulare Lake had huge economic importance in the region, both for the very large population of Indians, and the white pioneers.

The lake supported a large commercial fishery feeding San Francisco, and a steam powered ferry servicing several towns and settlements.

For example, in flood years the Kings River is diverted west into the so-called "North Fork Kings River," to Crescent Weir and related major levees eastward to the north-flowing Fresno Slough and to the sea, preventing a resurgence ("flooding") of Tulare Lake to the south.

This "switch point" is located just north of Lemoore right off of Highway 41 and Elgin Ave at the New Island Weirs.

Satellite maps indicate that highways, railroads, and property lines are aligned with the historic lake shores.

Other city council members are Frank Gornick, Jim Chaney, David Orth and Stuart Lyons.

Amtrak Thruway 18 provides a daily connection to/from 300 E Street to/from Visalia on the east, and Santa Maria on the west, with several stops in between.

[22] The Lemoore Union Elementary School District provides kindergarten through eighth grade education for most of the city.