After selecting ground around the newly constructed Oakhurst Branch Library, she began digging. Since then, Krieghoff has planted several gardens throughout Oakhurst, including one at the community park entrance and another at the intersection of Highway 41 and Road 222. It's an interest not just in beautifying, but in maintaining what we had when many moved up here in the first place. What they had was a mountain village surrounded by nature's beauty and absent of the concrete landscape of a city. Krieghoff's volunteer work is just one example of how many Oakhurst residents strive to control their own destiny.
Beautification is one goal.
And for many, another goal is to declare Oakhurst a city, which would move its residents out from under the auspices of Madera County government. Oakhurst is nestled in a mountain valley south of Yosemite National Park and west of the Sierra National Forest and Bass Lake. But locals view their community as a collection of homes set back from winding mountain roads. Houses line the Fresno River or sit amid oak and pine trees. Undistracted by the bustle of the businesses and nearby traffic, deer graze before the backdrop of Yosemite's snow-capped peaks.