McFarland (formerly, Hunt and Lone Pine)[8] is a city in the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California, United States.

In the early 1900s, an educator named James Boyd McFarland moved to the Anaheim area from Zanesville, Ohio, to try his hand at real estate and walnut farming.

McFarland visited Kern County in 1907 and was impressed with the land's crop-growing potential near a community called Hunt's Siding, which was a small agriculture and livestock-based community that served about 50 families.

McFarland grew tremendously during the Great Depression of the 1930s, then the population tapered off during World War II.

In 1950, the Highway 99 expressway and later freeway (then U.S. Route 99), the major corridor of the Central Valley, was constructed, which ended up dividing the town into an east side and west side.

In 2009 the city re-established its police force after decades of relying on the Kern County Sheriff.

The cross country team would go on to win 9 state titles.

At the 2000 census there were 9,618 people in 1,990 households, including 1,789 families, in the city.

There were 2,031 housing units at an average density of 986.5 per square mile (380.9/km2).