Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Alpaugh, CA

Alpaugh is a small census-designated place in southwestern Tulare County, built on the historic shoreline of Tulare Lake.

Alpaugh's site was once an island - known at different times as Hog Island, Root Island, and Atwell's Island - near the south end of Tulare Lake, where Visalia attorney A. J. Atwell once raised hogs.

Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake in the United States outside of the Great Lakes, and the last time it filled and overflowed into the San Joaquin River was 1878.

Alpaugh's townsite was platted and recorded on February 5, 1906, and the town is named for John Alpaugh, an investor and officer of the Home Extension Colony that promoted and developed the town.

Oil and large natural gas fields were discovered near Alpaugh in 1920 and 1921.

The 2020 census counted 871 residents in Alpaugh, down from a peak of 1,026 in 2010; it first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2000 census.

Alpaugh is one of the youngest communities in California: its median age was just 24.9 years in 2020, and nearly 40% of its residents were under 18.

Alpaugh has only 190 households, but they average a very large 4.58 people each - and about 88% of residents are Hispanic or Latino.

Despite sitting beside the ancient Tulare lakebed, Alpaugh lacks safe tap water: high levels of arsenic in the municipal supply force residents to rely on bottled water for drinking and cooking.

Alpaugh is served by its own Alpaugh Unified School District and by the West Isle Line railroad, which has run over the six-mile Alpaugh Branch - built in 1914 - since 1998.