Foothill Eagle's Library: Prather

FACTS:

Prather is located in California in the county of Fresno.

The zipcode is 93651.

It has an elevation of 1657 feet

It is located 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Fresno

In 2011 Sierra Elementary and Auberry Elementary Schools closed their sites and elementary students began going to school at Foothill Elementary which was once Foothill Middle School.

There are 1,653 people living in Prather as of 2014.

BUSINESS:

You will find the majority of mountain businesses located in Prather.
Here you can visit the Prather Shopping Center where MarVal grocery store, Velasco's Mexican Restaurant, YoTown Yogurt, second hand stores, CVS, Central Valley Community Bank, gas stations, nail and hair salons, hardware stores, realty groups and doctors.
The High Sierra Ranger District is located in Prather.

HISTORY::

The name "Prather" honors Joseph L. Prather who came to California in 1872.

In 1912 Ben Kneeland and his wife left Selma for 160 acres one half mile east of Prather on Hwy 168. They brought up 10 head of milk cows and took them three days to get the cows up to the foothills.

While the area of Prather carries the Prather name they never in fact owned property there. The original Prather Post Office was located near the corners of Auberry and Lodge Road. In 1914 George Kneeland moved to the area and wanted to establish the post office and wanted to name it Lodge. Lodge however was already being used by another post office so they decided to name it Prather since it was on Prather land. Here they built an adobe structure and sold beef, pork, apples, and wood to the power company.

In 1935 the post office was closed and reopened in 1936 by Carol Page in a new location at the "Y" of Auberry and Morgan Canyon Road. The store became Page's Store but the post office kept the name of Prather, and the location is now named for it.