Pinedale is a previously unincorporated community in Fresno, California. It lies at an elevation of 348 feet (106 m). 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 Fresno, CA. Millerton Lake State Recreational Area is to its NE. The ZIP Code is 93650, and the community is inside area 559. The first post office in Pinedale opened in 1923.
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. Under Executive Order 9066, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 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. Beginning on March 30, 1942, all native-born Americans and long-time legal residents of Japanese ancestry living in California were ordered to surrender themselves for detention.
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. The area is now within the Fresno city limits, north of Herndon Avenue and one mile (1.6 km) west of Blackstone Avenue. Junk Removal Fresno
The Army officially acquired the site on 24 March 1942. At the time of acquisition, 21 warehouses and 11 other buildings were used to store cotton, sugar, and machinery. From 7 May to 23 July 1942, the Pinedale Assembly Center housed 4,823 evacuees, with a maximum of 4,792 at a time. The evacuees were from Sacramento and El Dorado counties and Oregon and Washington. Ten barracks blocks, each with 26 buildings, were constructed for the evacuees, and a separate block was built for the military police and administration. Also at the camp was the 840th Army Air Forces Specialized Depot.
There is a historical marker just east of Blackstone Avenue on the site of the railroad stop where the Japanese were brought to Fresno. The tracks have been removed, and a bike trail is now in their place. The granite maker is on the side of the trail below the Freeway 41 overpass on Nees Avenue. Some of the original buildings from that era are still standing, and a memorial is planned to be unveiled.
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