24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Friant, CA

Friant is a small unincorporated census-designated place in Fresno County, sitting on the banks of the San Joaquin River at the base of Friant Dam.

Before it settled on the name Friant, the community was known in turn as Converse Ferry, Jones Ferry, Hamptonville and Pollasky.

Friant had a population of 446 at the 2020 census and covers about 1.3 square miles, with ZIP code 93626.

Friant Dam, a concrete gravity dam 319 feet high with a crest about 3,500 feet long on the Fresno-Madera county line, was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1937 to 1942 for the Central Valley Project.

The dam created Millerton Lake, which holds about 520,500 acre-feet of water over a 4,900-acre surface and first stored water on February 21, 1944; the lake's name recalls old Millerton, Fresno County's seat from 1856 to 1874, whose site the reservoir drowned.

The Friant-Kern Canal carries San Joaquin River water about 152 miles south from Friant to the Kern River near Bakersfield, while the Madera Canal runs about 36 miles north.

Millerton Lake State Recreation Area at Friant offers boating, fishing and camping, and the town and dam take their name from pioneer lumberman Thomas Friant.