Tulare, CA

Each February, Tulare becomes a meeting place for the machinery, science, and business of agriculture. World Ag Expo began at the Tulare fairgrounds in 1968 and moved to the International Agri-Center in 1982. The 2026 show marked its fifty-ninth year, with equipment demonstrations, product launches, seminars, and exhibits spread across 2.6 million square feet. Its location beside Highway 99 is practical as well as symbolic. Tulare sits between Fresno and Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley, surrounded by dairy operations, fields, packing facilities, and food processors. Irrigation technology, tractors, livestock equipment, finance, research, and training all meet there, making the city's agricultural economy unusually visible.

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Tulare began with a different transportation industry. Southern Pacific founded the town in 1872 as its San Joaquin Valley headquarters, and the city incorporated in 1888. Three fires forced rebuilding during the first fourteen years. When the railroad transferred its headquarters to Bakersfield in 1891, local residents increasingly built their livelihoods around farming. The fairgrounds later became the site of a grave federal action. In 1942, the U.S. Army converted the grounds into the Tulare Assembly Center, surrounding it with fencing, guard towers, and floodlights. Japanese American families were confined there before transfer to longer-term incarceration sites. Living quarters held six army cots, and some families were assigned to horse stalls. That history remains part of the same fairground landscape where the farm show first opened decades later.

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Agriculture still shapes Tulare's working life beyond the expo gates. Surrounding farmland and the local supply of crops and milk support food processors and distributors. Highway 99 supports movement to markets across the Central Valley and farther into California. Education mirrors that economy. College of the Sequoias opened its Tulare campus in 2013 as a full-service center and the home of the college's agriculture programs. Its courses cover dairy science, irrigation, plant and animal science, agricultural business, equipment repair, and industrial technology. A 320-acre working farm around the campus supports instruction in crop planning, water management, irrigation technology, and farm operations. Tulare connects production, processing, machinery, logistics, and training within one agricultural region.

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Tulare's civic calendar also runs through downtown and Portuguese Catholic institutions. Downtown, Zumwalt Park reopened after a full redevelopment in 2025 with an amphitheater, splash pad, playground, lawns, and space for concerts and civic celebrations. Its 2026 calendar includes live music and cultural events, giving the historic center a new gathering place. Tulare's Portuguese Catholic traditions provide a longer-running calendar. St. Aloysius School traces its annual Fatima Celebration to 1947, when local organizers created the event to help establish the school. It now takes place on the first weekend of October. A candlelit procession carries prayers in English and Portuguese from St. Aloysius Church to the T.D.E.S. Hall, followed by music, dancing, a parade of queens, and communal sopas prepared with support from local dairies. That procession connects Tulare's agricultural economy to a Portuguese-derived tradition sustained in its streets and halls.