Fellows developed as an oil boomtown after the 1909 discovery of the Midway Gusher. The first post office at Fellows opened in 1910. The name Fellows honors Charles A. Fellows, a Sunset Western Railway contractor.
The 1969 film The Lottery, based on the short story by Shirley Jackson, was shot at Fellows. It featured a small town much like thousands of others across America holding an apparently ordinary, mundane civic event that had a cold-blooded, horrifying ending to an unfortunate victim come from out-of-nowhere. The film was ranked as one of the two bestselling educational films ever and has been widely shown in educational settings across America as an indictment against unthinking adherence to tradition and general inhumanity.
Passages that mention Fellows, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1914 · page 1346Read the page →
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GEORGE W. HATFIELD.— Since 1911 Mr. Hatfield has had charge of the station at Fellows and has had included, under his own field of sunervision, the station at Shale and Suplico, the end of the line. His eldest son, George E., has entered the railroad service as clerk in the freight department at Fellows.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Kern County California1914 · page 1346Read the page →
Read the text
GEORGE W. HATFIELD.—Since 1911 Mr. Hatfield has had charge of the station at Fellows and has had included, under his own field of supervision, the station at Shale and Suplico, the end of the line. His eldest son, George E., has entered the railroad service as clerk in the freight department at Fellows.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1914 · page 182Read the page →
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Fellows Fellows first appeared on the map as a railroad terminal in 1908, when the Sunset Western railroad was extended from Pentland Junction, near Maricopa, to the northern portion of the Midway field. Nothing but a growing or diminishing pile of lumber and oil well supplies marked the spot, however, until the rfival of interest in oil development in 1909 began to make it an important point for the unloading of supplies for the oil companies that began about that time to venture out into the upper part of the Midway val-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Kern County California1914 · page 180Read the page →
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Fellows Fellows first appeared on the map as a railroad terminal in 1908, when the Sunset Western railroad was extended from Pentland Junction, near Maricopa, to the northern portion of the Midway field. Nothing but a growing or diminishing pile of lumber and oil well supplies marked the spot, however, until the revival of interest in oil development in 1909 began to make it an important point for the unloading of supplies for the oil companies that began about that time to venture out into the upper part of the Midway val-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fellows. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1944Fellows sheet · 1:31,680
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fellows.
Every building
Fellows, building by building, 1914–1921
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1914Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
People over time
Fellows, census by census
Between 52 and 153 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fellows’ Wikipedia page.
Famous people
Famous people close to Fellows
Nobody well known was born in Fellows itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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