The Tachi-Yokut Indians made a subsistence living around the great inland sea known as Tulare Lake, near present-day Lemoore, long before Dr. Laverne Lee Moore came to town in 1871. Still before Moore came other Anglo settlers. The Rhoads family settled and built an adobe house, which remains today, where Daniel and Sarah Rhoads raised a family, ranched, and did business in 1856. Rhoads was part of the group that rescued the ill-fated Donner party. The U.S. Post Office saw fit to name the town after its founder. During World War II, Lemoore was the site of a U.S. Army Air Force training camp. Since 1963, it has been home to one of the largest inland U.S. air bases: Naval Air Station Lemoore.