[1] It was once a rural community located on the Southern Pacific Railroad 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-northwest of Clovis but has since become surrounded and annexed by the city of Fresno.

[2] The community was the site of one of several temporary detention camps (also known as 'assembly centers') located throughout the West that represented the first phase of the mass incarceration of 97,785 Californians of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Pursuant to Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, thirteen makeshift detention facilities were constructed at various California racetracks, fairgrounds, and labor camps.

These facilities were intended to confine Japanese Americans until more permanent internment camps, such as those at Manzanar and Tule Lake in California, could be built in isolated areas of the country.

Known as "Camp Pinedale" the assembly center was located six miles (10 km) north of downtown Fresno on vacant land near an existing mill-workers housing area.