A single willow tree on the banks of a slough once stood here as a landmark visible for miles, called “Palo Solo” by vaqueros and renamed Lone Willow by immigrant pioneers. On September 15, 1858, the Butterfield Stage Company established a stage line carrying mail and passengers between St. Louis and San Francisco, and a station at this site became the Lone Willow Stage Station. The station remained in use by various stage companies until the railroad came through in 1889. As pioneers immigrated into the west side of the San Joaquin Valley in the early 1860’s, Gustave and Julia Kreyenhagen opened the first commercial store here in 1865 at Lone Willow Station, later moving twelve miles west in 1870. Their store became the first post office on the west side in 1873, named for the nearby “Arroyo de Los Banos del Padre Arroyo,” known by immigrants as Los Banos Crick, and from this the town of Los Banos took its name. Los Banos moved to its present location in 1889 with the coming of the railroad.