Ontario, California

Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza led his expedition through the area in 1774.

Interior of citrus packing house in Ontario, 1905

The olive vat room at Graber Olive House in Ontario, California. In 1894, two years after planting olive trees in Ontario, C. C. Graber began selling vat cured olives from the pictured vat room in vats similar to the ones pictured. Graber Olive House is the oldest operating olive packer in the United States.

Ontario was originally inhabited by only the Tongva Indians until Franciscans arrived developing the Spanish mission system.[10]

Juan Bautista de Anza is said to have passed through the area on his 1774 expedition, and to this day a city park and a middle school bear his name. Following the 1819 establishment of San Bernardino Asistencia, which may have served as an outpost of the San Gabriel mission, it became part of a large, vaguely identified area called "San Antonio".

In 1826, Jedediah Smith passed through what is now Upland on the first overland journey to the West coast of North America via the National Old Trails Road (present-day Foothill Blvd).[11]

The 1834 secularization of California land holdings resulted in the land's transferral to private hands. In 1881, the Chaffey brothers, George and William, purchased the land (which at that time also included the present-day city of Upland) and the water rights to it. They engineered a drainage system channeling water from the foothills of Mount San Antonio (colloquially known as "Mount Baldy") down to the flatter lands below that performed the dual functions of allowing farmers to water their crops and preventing the floods that periodically afflict them. They also created the main thoroughfare of Euclid Avenue (California Highway 83), with its distinctive wide lanes and grassy median. The new "Model Colony" (called so because it offered the perfect balance between agriculture and the urban comforts of schools, churches, and commerce) was originally conceived as a dry town, early deeds containing clauses forbidding the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages within the town. The two named the town "Ontario" in honor of the province of Ontario in Canada, where they were born.[12]

Ontario attracted farmers (primarily citrus) and ailing Easterners seeking a drier climate. To impress visitors and potential settlers with the "abundance" of water in Ontario, a fountain was placed at the Southern Pacific railway station. It was turned on when passenger trains were approaching and frugally turned off again after their departure. The original "Chaffey fountain", a simple spigot surrounded by a ring of white stones, was later replaced by the more ornate "Frankish Fountain", an Art Nouveau creation now located outside the Ontario Museum of History and Art.[13]

Agriculture was vital to the early economy, and many street names recall this legacy. The Sunkist plant remains as a living vestige of the citrus era. The Chaffey brothers left to found the settlements of Mildura, Australia and Renmark, Australia, which met with varying success. Charles Frankish continued their work at Ontario.

Mining engineer John Tays refined the design of the novel "mule car", used from 1887 for public transportation on Euclid Avenue to 24th Street. At that point, the two mules were loaded onto a platform at the rear of the car and allowed to ride, as gravity propelled the trolley back down the avenue to the downtown Ontario terminus. Soon replaced by an electric streetcar, the mule car is commemorated by a replica in an enclosure south of C Street on the Euclid Avenue median.

Ontario was incorporated as a city in 1891, and North Ontario broke away in 1906, calling itself Upland. Ontario grew quickly, increasing 10 times in the next half a century. The population of 20,000 in the 1960s grew 10 times more by 2007. Ontario was viewed as an "Iowa under Palm trees", with a solid Midwestern/Mid-American foundation, but it had a large German and Swiss community. Tens of thousands of European immigrants came to work in agriculture, and in the early 1900s the first Filipinos and Japanese farm laborers arrived, later to display nursery ownership skills.

Ontario has over two centuries of Hispanic residents, starting from the Californio period of Spanish colonial and Mexican rule in the 1840s. The first wave of Mexican settlers was in the 1880s brought as workers in the railroad industry (see traquero) and another wave from the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s. Mexican Americans resided in the city's poorer central side facing State Route 60 and Chino.

On December 13, 1996, AMC Theatres opened AMC Ontario Mills 30 in Ontario, which it billed as the "world's largest theater".[14] Three months later, Edwards Theaters opened the Edwards Ontario Palace 22 across the street.[14] If the two adjacent parking lots were treated as one, that meant Ontario had 52 screens on one parking lot, more than any other location in the United States.[14] The opening of that many screens in the Inland Empire came about as the culmination of a lifelong rivalry between AMC's Stanley Durwood and Edwards Theaters' James Edwards.[14] Edwards was infuriated when he learned Durwood had beaten him to a deal with Ontario Mills, and later told him, "I had to teach you a lesson".[14]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 50.0 square miles (129 km²). Of that, 49.9 square miles (129 km²) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km²) is water. The total area is 0.13% water.

The most common country of origin in Ontario is Mexico. 19.04% of Ontario’s population is Mexican-born. The remaining most countries of origin in Ontario are the Philippines, El Salvador, Guatemala, Vietnam, Korea, China, Honduras, Thailand and Peru. The most common spoken languages in Ontario are Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, other Pacific Island language, Korean, Portuguese, Urdu, African, and Arabic. Roman Catholicism is the most practiced religion.[18]

Ontario Mills in 2005

In the years following Ontario's founding, the economy was driven by its reputation as a health resort. Shortly thereafter, citrus farmers began taking advantage of Ontario's rocky soil to plant lemon and orange groves. Agricultural opportunities also attracted vintners and olive growers. The Graber Olive House, which continues to produce olives, is a city historical landmark and one of the oldest institutions in Ontario. Dairy farming is also prevalent, as it continues to be in neighboring Chino. Much of southern Ontario still contains dairy farms and other agricultural farms.[23] However, the area is currently under planning to be developed into a mixed-use area of residential homes, industrial and business parks, and town centers, collectively known as the New Model Colony.[24]

A major pre-war industry was the city's General Electric plant that produced clothing irons. During and after World War II, Ontario experienced a housing boom common to many suburbs. The expansion of the Southern California defense industry attracted many settlers to the city.[25] With California's aerospace industry concentrated in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, the Ontario International Airport was used as a pilot training center.[26] Today, Ontario still has a manufacturing industry, the most notable of which are Maglite, which produces flashlights. Manufacturing has waned, and Ontario's economy is dominated by service industries and warehousing. Major distribution centers are operated by companies such as AutoZone, Cardinal Health, MBM, Genuine Parts/NAPA, and Nordstrom.[27]

Ontario is also home to Niagara Bottling, The Icee Company, clothing companies Famous Stars and Straps and Shiekh Shoes, Scripto U.S.A., and to Phoenix Motorcars, who employs over 150 employees in Ontario.[28]

Ontario is home to three museums, the Ontario Museum of History and Art, the Chaffey Community Museum of Art, and the Ontario Police Museum.

Granada Theatre, c. 1940

Built in 1925, The Granada Theatre was leased to West Coast Junior Theater. By the 1940s, the theater had become part of the Fox West Coast Theater chain. The Granada Theatre was designed by architect L.A. Smith.[30]

Ontario is also the home to the second largest consumer Quilt Show in the United States, Road to California. The quilt show books over 2,400 room nights and has a recorded attendance of over 40,000 attendees.[31]

The Ontario post office contains two oil on canvas murals, The Dream depicting founder Chaffey with surveyors and The Reality which shows a view of the completed Euclid Avenue, painted by WPA muralist Nellie Geraldine Best in 1942.[32]

Since 1959, Ontario has placed three-dimensional nativity scenes on the median of Euclid Avenue during the Christmas season. The scenes, featuring statues by the sculptor Rudolph Vargas, were challenged in 1998 as a violation of church-state separation under the California Constitution by an atheist resident, but the dispute was resolved when private organizations began funding the storage and labor involved in the set-up and maintenance of the scenery in its entirety.[33] To support the nativity scenes the Ontario Chamber of Commerce started a craft fair called "Christmas on Euclid".

The All-States Picnic, an Independence Day celebration, began in 1939 to recognize the varied origins of the city's residents. Picnic tables lined the median of Euclid Avenue from Hawthorne to E Street, with signs for each of the country's 48 states. The picnic was suspended during World War II, but when it resumed in 1948, it attracted 120,000 people. A 1941 Ripley's Believe It or Not! cartoon listed Ontario's picnic table as the "world's longest". As native Californians came to outnumber the out-of-state-born, the celebration waned in popularity until it was discontinued in 1981. It was revived in 1991 as a celebration of civic pride.[34]

Toyota Arena

The Toyota Arena is a multipurpose arena which opened in late 2008. It is owned by Ontario, but is operated by SMG Worldwide. It is an 11,000-seat multi-purpose arena, the largest enclosed arena in the Inland Empire. Over 125 events are held annually featuring sporting competitions, concerts, and family shows.

The arena had been the home of the Ontario Reign, a former team in the ECHL, that called the arena home from 2008 to 2015. The Los Angeles Kings' affiliate played at the 9,736-seat Toyota Arena. In their debut season of 2008–09, they were second in the league in attendance, averaging 5856 fans per game.[35] The Reign led the ECHL in average attendance in every subsequent year.

Ontario was the host of the 2010 ECHL All-Star Game. Ontario joined Stockton (2008), Fresno (2006), and Bakersfield (2011) as California franchises hosting the league's midseason showcase. The minor league All-Star Game reportedly generated more than $1 million into the local economy.

In January 2015, the American Hockey League, a minor league above the ECHL, announced that it was forming a new Pacific Division and would be replacing the ECHL Ontario Reign with a relocated team. The Kings relocated the Manchester Monarchs, a franchise they had owned and operated since 2012, and became the Ontario Reign beginning with the 2015–16 AHL season.

The Ontario Motor Speedway was located in Ontario, and held races for USAC, Formula One, NHRA, and NASCAR. It was demolished in 1980 after the Chevron Land Company bought the property .[36]

Ontario has five school districts: Ontario/Montclair Elementary, Mt View Elementary, Cucamonga Elementary, Chino Unified and Chaffey Joint Union in the City borders. There are also several private schools throughout the city as well as two private military schools. Ontario also has nine trade schools. The University of La Verne College of Law is located in downtown Ontario. National University, Argosy University, San Joaquin Valley College and Chapman University have a satellite campus near the Ontario Mills mall. Ontario Christian is located there. Gateway Seminary has a campus in Ontario.[40]

• Hobie Alter, pioneer surfboard maker and catamaran builder
• Jeff Ayres, basketball player, NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs
• Rod Barajas, MLB player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and six other MLB teams
• Madge Bellamy, actress[44]
• Jim Brulte, politician[45]
• Jason Bowles, stock car racing driver
• Eudora Stone Bumstead (1860–1892), poet, hymnwriter
• Henry Bumstead, Academy Award-winning cinematic art director and designer
• Beverly Cleary, author and Newbery Medal-winning novelist (1984), The Luckiest Girl and memoir My Own Two Feet
• Andy Clyde, actor, married in Ontario in 1932
• Del Crandall, MLB player and manager, 11-time All-Star, member of 1957 World Series champion Braves
• William De Los Santos, poet, screenwriter and film director
• Joseph Dippolito, former underboss of the Dragna crime family
• Landon Donovan, former Los Angeles Galaxy and USMNT player; born in Ontario, raised in Redlands
• Prince Fielder, baseball player for the Texas Rangers
• José Carrera García, professional footballer
• Ana Patricia González, winner of Nuestra Belleza Latina 2010 (Our Latin Beauty 2010) and currently appearing on ¡Despierta América![46]
• Bill Graber, pole vaulter
• Robert Graettinger, composer
• Cle Kooiman, soccer player
• Ryan Lane, actor
• Nick Leyva, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies (1989–1991)[47]
• Christina "T" Lopez, singer, actress; former member of Latin girl dance-pop band Soluna[48]
• Sam Maloof, furniture designer and woodworker
• Shelly Martinez, professional wrestler
• Anthony Muñoz, 1998 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee
• Al Newman, former MLB player [49]
• Douglas Northway, Olympic bronze medalist, swimming[50]
• Joan O'Brien, actress, graduate of Chaffey Union High School District
• Charles Phoenix, pop culture humorist, historian, author and chef
• Antonio Pierce, football player
• Joey Scarbury, singer[51]
• Robert Shaw, conductor[52]
• Mike Sweeney, MLB player for Philadelphia Phillies, attended Ontario High School and led 1991 baseball team to undefeated record and state title[53]
• Bobby Wagner, football player, attended Colony High School; middle Linebacker for the Super Bowl champions Seattle Seahawks
• Joseph Wambaugh, author[45]
• Frank Zappa, musician, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award[54]

Ontario has five sister cities around the world.[55] They are:

• Brockville, Ontario, Canada (since 1977)
• Guamúchil, Sinaloa, Mexico (since 1982)
• Mocorito, Sinaloa, Mexico (since 1982)
• Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico (since 1988)
• Winterthur, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland[note 1][56]
• Jieyang, China[57]

• Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (newspaper)
• Ontario and San Antonio Heights Railroad Company
• The Daily Report (newspaper)
• List of U.S. cities with large Hispanic populations
• Greater Los Angeles Area
• Inland Empire Metropolitan Area

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ontario, California.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Ontario, California.

• Official website
• Ontario Chamber of Commerce
• Ontario, California at Curlie