In June 1872, former Fresno County Sheriff Leroy Dennis erected a store and hotel in Berenda. On February 12, 1873, the first official post office of Madera County opened there. The Central Pacific Railroad came through, and Berenda became a farming community with several hotels, blacksmith shops, and saloons. Cattle ranchers Miller and Lux built and donated a schoolhouse. As a gateway to Yosemite, Berenda's boom days came in the late 1880s, when Yosemite tourism traveled by stage. After a wet winter in 1885-1886, stages crossing wet rangelands caused delays for tourism from Berenda to Raymond, creating a new gateway to Yosemite. As the Madera area grew larger and more industrial, Berenda began to shrink. Postal service stopped on March 23, 1919, and the U.S. Postal Service renamed the town Berenda "Female Antelope." The boom time was over, and only a few buildings and the old schoolhouse remained.