Fresno

Fresno sits near the center of the San Joaquin Valley, the southern half of California's vast Central Valley and one of the most productive agricultural regions on Earth. Founded as a railroad stop in 1872 on the flat valley floor, it grew into the marketing and processing hub for the surrounding farms, which lead the nation in fruits, nuts, and vegetables grown on irrigated former desert.

The valley around Fresno is dead flat and, without irrigation, semi-arid — its farms depend on water carried from the Sierra Nevada, whose snow-capped peaks rise to the east. Fresno is one of the closest cities to three national parks — Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon — that crown the Sierra above the valley. It anchors a metro of more than a million in the agricultural heart of the state.

• California
  The most populous U.S. state, admitted 1850 located in