Between 1859 and 1862, Vandalia was developing as the largest trading center in the Tule River Watershed and the third largest settlement in Tulare County. Vandalia Village, three tenths of a mile north of this site, was the first semblance of a community on the Tule River, with the first official post office, first school, first church, and first cemetery in the Tule River Valley. Among the first settlers were William and David Campbell, who located their original homestead on an island in the mouth of the river, including the present Vandalia School, Pioneer Junior High, Porterville College, Jamison Stadium, and Freeway 190. Floods in 1862 and 1868 wiped out Vandalia Village along with the homes of many settlers, but Vandalia's influence is still felt in southeastern Tulare County through citizens whose roots go back to the first pioneers, and the name lives on as a school, a cemetery, an avenue, an irrigation district, and a 4-H club.