Town of the Week, May 23, 1998
Rebroadcast from October 29, 1994

Take a visit to Ontario, California; just listen in.

Ontario, California

One of the most delightful journeys in California is from Los Angeles eastward through the San Gabriel Valley to San Bernadino County.

It's the largest county in the United States, 20,000 square miles or about 20 Rhode Islands. There, amid the orange groves and grape vines at the base of the Sierra Madre is Ontario. It's a beautiful community founded as a model city by Canadians from Ontario in 1882.

Euclid Avenue, which is lined with pepper trees, runs through the heart of the city, linking Upland to the north and Chino to the south. After a visit to the old downtown area, wander out in the countryside to Guasti, a district of grapes and deciduous fruits, where millions of gallons of California "Champagne style" wines are produced for shipment worldwide.

Ontario is a town of 143,000 people, with two highs schools, the Ontario Jaguars and the Chasley Tigers. Its a town that celebrates the Fourth of July with the longest picnic table in the world, representing all 50 states...and its our town of the week, Ontario, California.

. . . The original California natives inhabited an isolated corner of North America, with mountains to the east and deserts to the south. . . . Spain claimed and occupied California in the interest of increasing the Spanish realm -- in terms of both land and people -- to increase Spanish and Catholic influence. The Spanish colonization was highly authoritarian and subject to all the inefficiencies of centralized planning. . . . California was officially made a territory with the end of the Mexican-American war February 2, 1848, nine days before gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill.

California State Travel Resources San Bernadino County Homepage

Motto: Eureka (I found it!) Tree: California redwood Bird: California quail Insect: California dogface butterfly Reptile: Desert tortise Mineral: Gold Gem: Benitoite

Info for "D'ja Know?" and "Fun Facts" compiled from the California State Government web site and the California History Outline.