Laton, CA

Laton is a Fresno County census-designated place in the southern San Joaquin Valley, about 23 miles southeast of Fresno and close to the Kings River. The 2020 census counted 1,967 residents. Its town story is tied to the railroad and to a river town that vanished: the community was established alongside the Santa Fe line, took the name Laton in 1899 after San Francisco landowner Charles A. Laton, and grew near the old Kingston site. Kingston had once been a ferry, stage, and river crossing before fading away. The present-day place is a small farm community with the Kings River and Laton-Kingston Park just west.

The park sits on the former Kingston site and carries the old river-crossing story into today, while the rail line and roads keep Laton connected to Fresno and Kings County. Orchards, fields, irrigation canals, school grounds, and the river define the surroundings more than a compact downtown. Laton's local scoop is a California railroad community living beside the ghost of an older Kings River town, with a 1899 name and a historic river park.