Once upon a time herds of antelope roamed over much of the San Joaquin Valley.
So numerous were they in the 19th century that one community, not far from Madera, took them for their mascot and named their little town after the fleet-footed animals.
Although the town of Berenda is long gone, its name remains in the form of a school and in the memory of a few old timers.
Berenda nació cuando el Ferrocarril del Pacífico Central cruzó el río Fresno en 1872. Antes de ese año, no había pueblos en el valle de lo que ahora es el condado de Madera. Cuando llegó a lo que se convertiría en Berenda el 5 de marzo de 1872, el ferrocarril instaló un tanque de agua de madera de 20.000 galones para sus locomotoras de vapor, y así nació un pueblo.
Un próspero pueblo pronto siguió a este desarrollo, ya que la gente venía de kilómetros a la redonda, conduciendo sus caballos y carruajes a los animados “bailes del almacén” de Berenda. Pasaban la noche en uno de los tres hoteles construidos antes de 1900, y eran mimados por la lavandera del pueblo que lavaba la ropa en la parte trasera del Hotel Vignolo y era conocida por el apodo de “Snowball”.”
The enterprising Leroy Dennis played a leading role in the growth of Berenda. Sensing that the railroad would trigger the development of modern farm life, he prepared to provide the essential supplies and services that would be needed.
Dennis, a former sheriff of what was then Fresno County, built the first store and hotel in the area — they would serve as the basis for Berenda’s early beginnings. As these needs were met, additional hotels, general stores, a blacksmith shop, a laundry, saloons, and finally a school were added.
When the nearby mountains came alive with mining and lumber activity, Berenda soon felt the impact. Mail and passenger service had to be provided to the foothills and mountains, giving rise to horse-drawn stage operations between Berenda, Buchanan, and up into the higher country of Grub Gulch and Fresno Flats. Within a short time, people were coming to Berenda to travel to the mines and lumber mills to work. All the while, the mercantile establishments on the valley floor continued to thrive.
En la década de 1880, la Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Company persuadió al ferrocarril a intentar construir una vía auxiliar desde Berenda hasta Raymond. Esta línea se completó el 14 de mayo de 1886 y Berenda recibió otro impulso de crecimiento. El terraplén de estas vías todavía se puede ver cerca del Daulton Ranch y en muchos otros sitios en las elevaciones más altas.
El pueblo tuvo un breve momento de notoriedad en 1903, cuando el presidente Theodore Roosevelt tomó el tren de Berenda a Raymond en su camino a Yosemite, pero luego comenzó a decaer a medida que los viajeros tomaban rutas alternativas.
Berenda was hard-hit in 1907, when all of the Yosemite traffic was lost to the Yosemite Valley Railroad that was constructed from Merced to El Portal and the farming interest began conducting business in Madera.
To make matters worse, the copper miners stopped bringing their ore to the Berenda depot for shipment.
On Aug. 31, 1935, the Berenda post office was closed, and for all practical purposes, the town died. The track from Daulton to Raymond was abandoned in 1942, and the 10-mile track between Berenda and Daulton was abandoned in 1956. All of the buildings on the west side of the railroad tracks, except the schoolhouse, were moved to the east side to make way for the construction of the Golden State Highway (99) in 1914.
The Southern Pacific’s tank was dismantled in 1958, due to the discontinued use of steam locomotives, and Berenda School was moved further to the west when Highway 99 became four lanes in the 1940s. The Berenda passenger and freight depot had been dismantled in Aug. 1940.
The schoolhouse is Berenda’s only surviving building. The rabbit drives, along with the geese, coyote, and antelope hunts which were popular diversions in Berenda, faded away with the town, but the pieces of Berenda’s past live on in the memories of the old and imaginations of the young.