The Forty Acres

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1929.

From the record

“The Forty Acres, located in Delano, California, was the first headquarters of the United Farm Workers labor union. The union acquired the site of the compound in 1966, and the buildings were built in the ensuing years.”
Wikipedia article The Forty Acres, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 23 National Register listings published here for Kern County · listed in 2008 · category: District · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 30168 Garces Highway, Delano, 93215
When was it listed? October 2008
Category. district
Census division. Delano-McFarland
Architectural style. Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 08001090 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

149 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 149 fires within 5 miles of The Forty Acres between 1992 and 2020, burning about 915 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 23 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	81
Arson/incendiarism	23
Equipment and vehicle use	22
Debris and open burning	9
Smoking	6
Misuse of fire by a minor	6
Natural	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Kern County Fire Department	not named
27 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
21 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Kern County Fire Department	not named
20 September 2007	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
2 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Tulare Unit	STATE OF CA #76
16 September 2005	Debris and open burning	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
15 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Kern County Fire Department	not named
15 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Kern County

Storms near this property

7 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Delano, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 2003 and 2026: 5 flood, 1 lightning, 1 debris flow. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
January 2011	Flood	Delano	$800,000	Damage to Delano schools from the storms of December 17th to January 2nd estimated at 800,000 dollars.
January 2026	Flood	Delano	-	CHP reported SB SR 99 flooded under the underpass of County Line Rd in Delano.
January 2023	Flood	Delano	-	California Highway Patrol reported standing water on SR 99 near Cecil Ave.
August 2023	Flood	Delano	-	California Highway Patrol reported standing water on SR 99 under the overpasses of Cecil Ave. and Garces Hwy. in Delano.
January 2017	Flood	Delano	-	California Highway Patrol reported roadway flooding near Avenue O and Veneto Street in Delano.
September 2017	Debris Flow	Delano	-	California Highway Patrol reported road flooding and mud debris near Cecil Ave. and State Route 99 in Delano.
July 2003	Lightning	Delano	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kern County

Maps showing this location

10 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1929 USGS Stone quadrangle1:31680 - 3 printings
1942 USGS Earlimart quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1954 USGS Delano West quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1955 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1962 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1966 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
1993 USGS Delano quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	National Farm Workers Association Headquarters	1.7 miles	2015

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 08001090 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kern County	All 23 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.