Tulare ( tuu-LAIR-ee) is a city in Tulare County, California. The population was 68,875 at the 2020 census. It is located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, eight miles south of Visalia and sixty miles north of Bakersfield. The city is named for the Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes.

The English name Tulare derives ultimately from Classical Nahuatl tōllin, “sedge” or “reeds”, by quirk of Spanish tule, which along with exists in English as a loanword. The read out is cognate behind Tula, Tultepec, and Tultitlán de Mariano Escobedo.

The Yokuts people built reed boats and fished in what was well along to be called Tulare Lake in their homeland for centuries, until the raid and deal by the Spanish and American pioneers. When California became a let in in 1850, Tulare did not nevertheless exist as a town. Tulare was founded in 1872, by the Southern Pacific Railroad. The town was named for Lake Tulare. The lake had been named for the tule rush plant (Schoenoplectus acutus) (pictured left), a species of bulrush that predominantly lined the marshes and sloughs of its shore.

Transportation was the first impetus at the rear the commencement of the town. Tulare flourished as the headquarters of the railroad in the area. The town suffered through many difficult challenges, but despite on fire down and bodily rebuilt three become old in its first fourteen years of existence, it was eventually incorporated in 1888.