Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley runs south-southeast from the southern end of San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. The northern, urbanized end of the valley is part of a region locally known as the "South Bay" and part of the electronics and technology area known as Silicon Valley. Santa Clara Valley consists of most of Santa Clara County, including its county seat, San Jose, as well as a small portion of San Benito County; the valley, named after the Spanish Mission Santa Clara, was for a time known as the Valley of Heart's Delight for its high concentration of orchards, flowering trees, plants. Until the 1960s it was the largest fruit producing and packing region in the world with 39 canneries. Once agricultural because of its fertile soil, Santa Clara Valley is now urbanized, although its far southern reaches south of Gilroy remain agrarian; the most northern urban areas are considered part of Silicon Valley. As Silicon Valley is not an actual valley, parts of the San Francisco Peninsula farther north are included in the Silicon Valley region as well.
Locally, the urbanized areas of Santa Clara Valley are referred to as part of the South Bay. Few traces of its agricultural past can still be found, but the Santa Clara Valley American Viticultural Area remains a large wine-making region, it was one of the first commercial wine-producing regions in California, utilizing high-quality French varietal vines imported from France. The northern end of the Santa Clara Valley is at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay, the southern end is in the vicinity of Hollister; the valley is bounded by the Santa Cruz Mountains on the southwest, which separate Santa Clara Valley from the Pacific Ocean, by the Diablo Range on the northeast. The valley is 30 miles long by 15 miles wide, its largest city, by an 86.7% margin, is San Jose. The population of the valley is 1.81 million people along with 865,700 wage and salary jobs. Santa Clara Valley has a Mediterranean semi-arid climate; the earliest inhabitants on the Santa Clara Valley are the Ohlone people, who had eight distinct languages and tribes in the coastal region.
Mission Santa Clara de Asís, which had control over a vast tract of land stretching from Palo Alto to Gilroy, was founded by Franciscans in 1777. San Jose was California's first town and was founded in 1777 by Spain as an agricultural pueblo. There were 66 original settlers. In Spanish and Mexican times the land was devoted to cattle. Following the Mexican–American War San Jose was the Capital of California; the influx of Americans resulted in relocation of many of the native Mexican and Indian people of San Jose to the mission at Santa Clara, under control of Jesuits from 1850. In 1860, as an American town, the population of San Jose was 4,579, with cattle ranching still the main agricultural activity. For a time wheat became the main crop, but in the 1870s fruit became the main crop and processing of fruit by drying or canning the predominant industry; the railroad reached San Jose in 1860. The valley with its scenic beauty, mild climate, thousands of acres of blooming fruit trees was known as "The Valley of Heart's Delight".
Various fruit cooperatives were formed in the area to deals with economic issues, including The California Fruit Union and the Santa Clara County Fruit Exchange. Prunes were a major crop, the valley was producing the majority of prunes in California by 1900 and they were shipped internationally. Water was supplied from an artesian aquifer and when the water table dropped, wells were pumped. Many orchards were small with fruit growing in a dispersed pattern. By the 1920s and 1930s, the agricultural and horticultural industries were doing well in the valley and included 18 canneries, 13 dried-fruit packing houses, 12 fresh-fruit and vegetable shipping firms, they were shipping internationally. Del Monte and Sunsweet are two brands; the need for workers exceeded the local population and in the nineteenth century and Japanese immigrants met that need. Toward the end of the nineteenth century many Italians and other immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe came to the valley and worked in the orchards and canneries.
During the 20th century there were Filipino immigrants and increasing numbers of immigrants from Mexico who during World War II became the dominant agricultural workforce. The town of San Jose was dominated by its business community, in part composed of Irish Catholics, who had a self-contained social life which did not include immigrant labor. There was marked prejudice against Asians Chinese, who left the valley. Deflation and overproduction hurt the orchards and packers of the Santa Clara Valley during the Great Depression. Bankrupt farmers from the Dust Bowl, the Okies, made the trek to California. Desperate to feed their families they joined a workforce, itself impacted by unemployment; the growers, with record low prices and surplus supply, could pay little. Labor organizers and goon squads battled in the labor camps. Woody Guthrie's songs were on the radio and he wrote a regular column in the San Francisco-based The Daily People's World. San Francisco had a strong labor union tradition. During the "March Inland" organizing drive the International Longshore and Warehouse Union backed the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union, a Communist-controlled union headquartered in San Jose, which had considerable success organizing farm and cannery workers in
Port Hueneme, California
Port Hueneme is a small beach city in Ventura County, California surrounded by the city of Oxnard and the Santa Barbara Channel. The name derives from the Spanish spelling of the Ventureño phrase wene me, meaning "Resting Place"; the town's name was changed to Port Hueneme in 1939 and was incorporated March 24, 1948. Both the Port of Hueneme and Naval Base Ventura County lie within city limits. Port Hueneme has a south-facing sand beach, known for its surfing; the beach has a wooden fishing pier and is about a mile long between Ormond Beach downcoast and Point Hueneme Light at the harbor entrance shared by the naval base and the port. The Waterfront Promenade known as the Lighthouse Promenade, provides a paved public access along the shoreline with two historic sites at view points: the 1872 Wharf and the Oxnard Packing House. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored this area and the adjacent Channel Islands in October 1542. Thomas Bard learned of the submarine canyon at Point Hueneme and took advantage of the canyon depth to construct the Hueneme Wharf in 1871 here.
The existing street grid of the town was formally laid out in 1888. Until the construction of the Montalvo Cutoff that brought the railroad to nearby Oxnard, the wharf was the principal means of transportation for that portion of Ventura County lying south of the Santa Clara River. Hueneme was the second largest grain shipping port on the Pacific coast between 1871 and 1895; the 2010 United States Census reported that Port Hueneme had a population of 21,723. The population density was 4,651.2 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Port Hueneme was 12,357 White, 1,111 African American, 295 Native American, 1,299 Asian, 119 Pacific Islander, 5,224 from other races, 1,318 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,360 persons; the Census reported that 20,854 people lived in households, 869 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, 0 were institutionalized. There were 7,080 households, out of which 2,832 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 3,267 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,121 had a female householder with no husband present, 440 had a male householder with no wife present.
There were 458 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, 53 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,760 households were made up of individuals and 775 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.95. There were 4,828 families; the population was spread out with 5,781 people under the age of 18, 2,705 people aged 18 to 24, 6,258 people aged 25 to 44, 4,593 people aged 45 to 64, 2,386 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.1 males. There were 8,131 housing units at an average density of 1,741.0 per square mile, of which 3,422 were owner-occupied, 3,658 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.7%. 9,747 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 11,107 people lived in rental housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 21,845 people, 7,268 households, 5,000 families residing in the city; the population density was 4,912.9 inhabitants per square mile.
There were 7,908 housing units at an average density of 1,778.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 57.27% White, 6.06% African American, 1.69% Native American, 6.33% Asian, 0.50% Pacific Islander, 21.84% from other races, 6.30% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 41.02% of the population. There were 7,268 households out of which 37.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.9% were married couples living together, 13.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.2% were non-families. Twenty-four point one percent of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.86 and the average family size was 3.42. In the city, the population was spread out with 27.6% under the age of 18, 13.2% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 16.5% from 45 to 64, 10.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.2 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.7 males. The median income for a household in the city was $42,246, the median income for a family was $46,056. Males had a median income of $30,314 versus $25,703 for females; the per capita income for the city was $17,311. About 9.8% of families and 12.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.7% of those under age 18 and 8.9% of those age 65 or over. The city decided to develop a model program as tho only city in Ventura county to allow multiple types of marijuana businesses, including cultivation and retail sales. During a city sponsored workshop in 2019, the chief of the state Bureau of Cannabis Control, which regulates the industry said, “I think you have a lot to be proud of this city; this city has shown if it’s done right, it works well.” Five percent of gross revenues from these businesses is collected by the city per agreements that allow them to operate in the city. The Port of Hueneme, shared with Oxnard Harbor District and Naval Base Ventura County, is the only deep water port between the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of San Francisco, the only Navy cont
Oxnard Plain
The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, United States surrounded by the mountains of the Transverse ranges. The cities of Oxnard, Port Hueneme and much of Ventura as well as the unincorporated communities of Hollywood Beach, El Rio, Silver Strand Beach, Somis lie within the over 200-square-mile alluvial plain; the population within the plain comprises a majority of the western half of the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura Metro Area and includes the largest city along the Central Coast of California. The 16.5-mile-long coastline is among the longest stretches of continuous, linear beaches in the state. The high quality soils, adequate water supply, favorable climate, long growing season, level topography are characteristic of the Oxnard Plain where the top cash crops are strawberries, nursery stock and celery. Ventura County is one of the principal agricultural counties in the state and it is a significant component of the economy with a total annual crop value in the county of over $1.8 billion in 2014.
There is strong public sentiment for retaining agricultural production, as reflected in the SOAR initiatives that have been approved by voters. This plain has been formed chiefly by the deposition of sediments from Santa Clara River and Calleguas Creek; this plain contained a series of marshes, salt flats and lagoons prior to the expansion of agriculture. The Santa Clara River is one of the largest river systems along the coast of Southern California and only one of two remaining river systems in the region that remain in their natural states; the Oxnard Plain faces the Santa Barbara Channel portion of the Southern California Bight, extending from the abrupt transition of the steep rocky shore at Point Mugu in the Santa Monica Mountains on the south to the Ventura River on the north. Prominent on the southeastern horizon are Boney Peak; the Oxnard Plain contains a considerable petroleum reserve with several active oil fields – the Oxnard Oil Field, east of Oxnard, the West Montalvo Oil Field, along the coast south of the outlet of the Santa Clara River, the Santa Clara Avenue Oil Field north of U.
S. Highway 101 near El Rio. There are several smaller abandoned oil fields. Oil facilities are interspersed with agricultural land uses both west of Oxnard. Human settlement at over 5000 B. C. E. has been documented in nearby coastal sites. These prehistoric sites may contain middens, milling stone sites, large villages and tool making sites; the diversity of natural resources along with the temperate climate with a long growing season allowed for a lengthy archaeological record of human activity along the coast to remain here. Calleguas Creek and the Santa Clara River were populated with many Native American villages as evidenced by archaeological sites such as the Calleguas Creek Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Several sites have been documented at Mugu Lagoon; these sites are located adjacent to permanent water sources as the presence or absence of water is a crucial predictor of site location in Southern California. Many of the archaeological sites on the plain have been disturbed by erosion, gophers and other cultural and natural sources of disturbance.
Spanish explorers made sailing expeditions along the coast of southern California between the mid-1500s and mid-1700s. In the 18th century, Spain began the inland exploration of Alta California, they established a tripartite system consisting of missions and pueblos. Mission San Buenaventura was founded in 1782 next to the Ventura River, 10 miles upcoast from the Santa Clara River; the Oxnard plain was used for grazing herds of livestock. The traditional way of life of the Chumash people became unstable and unsustainable on the Oxnard Plain with the introduction of these animals, they experienced further disruptive contacts through the increasing number of Europeans and Americans that visited the California coast looking for pelts from fur-bearing animals such as sea otters, trade in hides and tallow beginning in the 1790s. The destruction wrought by the livestock and shortages of wild plants that they used for food may have made the missions appear to be the only viable alternative to a disintegrating way of life.
At its peak in 1816, the mission had over 41,000 animals including 12,144 sheep. The 4,493 horses constituted one of the largest stables of horses of the California mission sites; the Chumash culture, including political and social relationships between communities and inter-village marriage patterns, could not be sustained as more and more Indians abandoned their traditional way of life and entered the mission. The severe decrease in the Chumash population was in response to a complex set of social and demographic factors. Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821. With the secularization of the missions by the Mexican government in June 1836, their lands were granted as rewards for loyal service or in response to petitions by individuals. Most of the arable land was divided up into large ranchos by 1846; this opened up the Oxnard Plain to further settlement by Europeans. Control of the area was transferred to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and California became the 31st state in the Union in 1850.
Many Mexican residents and residents who had immigrated from European countries became U. S. citizens. Many of the Spanish and Mexican rancho families benefited when the cattle market peaked between 1848 and 1855 due to the California Gold Rush. Cattle ranching declined drastically when a droug
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 823,318; the largest city is Oxnard, the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, included in the Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area, it is considered the southernmost county along the California Central Coast. It is a separate metropolitan area west of the more populous Los Angeles metropolitan area. Ventura County has been named the "most desirable" place to live in the U. S. by the Washington Post and the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 2015, it is home to several of the safest communities in the U. S. including Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Newbury Park, Moorpark. Overall, crime in the county is 33% lower than California and U. S. rates. Two of the California Channel Islands are part of the county: Anacapa Island, the most visited island in Channel Islands National Park, San Nicolas Island.
Ventura County was inhabited by the Chumash people, who settled much of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, with their presence dating back 10,000-12,000 years. The Chumash were hunter-gatherers and traders with the Mojave and Tongva Indians; the Chumash are known for their rock paintings and for their great basketry. Chumash Indian Museum in Thousand Oaks has several reconstructed Chumash houses and there are several Chumash pictographs in the county, including the Burro Flats Painted Cave in Simi Valley; the plank canoe, called a tomol in Chumash, was important to their way of life. Canoe launching points on the mainland for trade with the Chumash of the Channel Islands were located at the mouth of the Ventura River, Mugu Lagoon and Point Hueneme; this has led to speculations among archeologists of whether the Chumash could have had a pre-historic contact with Polynesians. According to diachronic linguistics, certain words such as tomolo’o could be related to Polynesian languages; the dialect of the Chumash language, spoken in Ventura County was Ventureño.
Several place names in the county has originated from Chumash, including Ojai, which means moon, Simi Valley, which originates from the word Shimiyi and refers to the stringy, thread-like clouds that typify the region. Others include Point Mugu from the word Muwu, Saticoy from the word Sa’aqtiko’y, Sespe Creek from the word S’eqp’e. In October 1542, the expedition led by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo anchored in an inlet near Point Mugu. Active occupation of California by Spain began in 1769. Gaspar de Portolà led a military expedition by land from San Diego to Monterey, passing through Ventura County in August of that year. A priest with the expedition, Father Juan Crespí, kept a journal of the trip and noted that the area was ideal for a mission to be established and it was a "good site to which nothing is lacking". On this expedition was Father Junípero Serra, who founded a mission on this site. On March 31, 1782, the Mission San Buenaventura was founded by Father Serra, it is named after Saint one of the early intellectual founders of the Franciscan Order.
The town that grew up around the mission and remains named San Buenaventura, although has been known as Ventura since 1891. In the 1790s, the Spanish Governor of California began granting land concessions to Spanish Californians who were retiring soldiers; these concessions were known as ranchos and consisted of thousands of acres of land that were used as ranch land for livestock. In Ventura County, Rancho Simi was granted in 1795 and Rancho El Conejo in 1802. Fernando Tico was granted part of Ventura by Gov. Alvarado. In 1822, California was notified of Mexico's independence from Spain and the Governor of California, the Junta, the military in Monterey and the priests and neophytes at Mission San Buenaventura swore allegiance to Mexico on April 11, 1822. California land, vested in the King of Spain was now owned by the nation of Mexico. By the 1830s, Mission San Buenaventura was in a decline with fewer neophytes joining the mission; the number of cattle owned by the mission dropped from first to fifteenth ranking in the California Missions.
The missions were secularized by the Mexican government in 1834. The Mexican governors began granting land rights to Mexican Californians retiring soldiers. By 1846, there were 19 rancho grants in Ventura County. In 1836, Mission San Buenaventura was transferred from the Church to a secular administrator; the natives, working at the mission left to work on the ranchos. By 1839, only 300 Indians were left at the Mission and it slipped into neglect. Several outhouses were discovered in July 2007 dating back to the 1800s where a new site had been cleared to prepare for development; the area proved to be a treasure trove for archaeologists who braved the lingering smell in the dirt to uncover artifacts that showed heavy utilization by mission inhabitants, early settlers and Spanish and Mexican soldiers. The Mexican–American War began in 1846 but its effect was not felt in Ventura County until 1847. In January of that year, Captain John C. Frémont led the California Battalion into San Buenaventura finding that the Europeans had fled leaving only the Indians in the Mission.
Fremont and the Battalion continued south to sign the Treaty of Cahuenga with General Andrés Pico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally transferred California to the United States in 1848. By 1849, a constitution had been adopted for the California territory; the n
Conejo Valley
The Conejo Valley is a region spanning both southeastern Ventura County and northwestern Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States. It is located in the northwestern part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. Communities in Conejo Valley are Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Westlake Village, Oak Park, Agoura Hills, Lake Sherwood and a portion of Calabasas. In 1803, the Spanish land grant in the area was given the name Rancho El Conejo. In Spanish, conejo means "rabbit", refers to the rabbits common to the region the desert cottontail and brush rabbit species; the first human residents of Conejo valley were the native Chumash people. Notable Chumash villages included Satwiwa in Newbury Park, Sap'wi in Thousand Oaks, Hipuk in Westlake Village. Sap'wi is located near Chumash Indian Museum in Oakbrook Regional Park; this park is home to 4-6,000 year old pictographs, which can be observed on docent-led tours. Satwiwa, first settled 13,000 years ago, was located at the foothills of Mount Boney, a sacred mountain to the Chumash people.
The Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center is available for visitors. Two additional Chumash villages were found by Ventu Park Road; these had a population of 100-200 in each village, were settled around 2,000 years ago. These former villages, known as Ven-65, Ven-260 and Ven-261, are located on private lands near Ventu Park Road in Newbury Park. A smaller village, known as Yitimasɨh, was located where Wildwood Elementary School is located today. Artifacts retrieved in nearby Wildwood Regional Park include shell beads and stone tools. Local villagers' first contact with Europeans came in 1770; the Spanish exploratory party led by Gaspar de Portolá, returning from its journey up the coast as far as San Francisco, entered the valley from the northwest. On the outward bound journey, the explorers had traveled up the Los Angeles River north to Castaic Junction followed the Santa Clara River back down to the coast. On the return trip, they sought a shorter route to the San Fernando Valley, were guided by natives up and over the Conejo Grade.
Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi kept a diary of the expedition, gave Conejo Valley one name that survives today – Triunfo. Crespi gave the name El triunfo del Dulcísimo Nombre de Jesús to a camping place by a creek – today's Triunfo Canyon Road begins between Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza used Portolá's shortcut on his way north in 1774, mentioning in his diary a stop at "El Triunfo". On de Anza's second expedition, diarist Father Pedro Font referred to "many watering places, like those of El Triunfo and Los Conejos". Harold and Edwin Janss purchased ten thousand acres of land of what is now central Thousand Oaks from the heir of John Edwards, who had purchased the land from the de la Guerra heirs in 1910. A ranch, named the Janss Conejo Ranch, was utilized as a farm and to raise thoroughbred horses with the Santa Susanna Mountains and Simi Hills framing it. Television Westerns such as The Rifleman and Bonanza were filmed in Janss Conejo between the 1950s and 1960s.
It was used as the filming locations for Disney's Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and Westward Ho, the Wagons! both starring Fess Parker. Conejo Valley is a 900-foot high valley which occupies 1,884 sq mi The area is bordered by the San Fernando Valley and the city of Los Angeles to the east, Simi Hills to the north, Las Posas Hills and the Santa Rosa Valley to the northwest, Conejo Mountain and Oxnard Plain to the west, the Santa Monica Mountains to the south; the valley is located in the Santa Monica Mountains on an elevated area. The largest non-retail employers in the Conejo Valley include Amgen, the Conejo Valley Unified School District, Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Anthem Blue Cross, California Lutheran University, Shire Biotechnology, Skyworks Solutions, PennyMac Mortgage and Sage Publications. Other notable employers include Jafra Cosmetics, Teledyne, J. D. Power, Dole Food Company, Guitar Center, Bank of America and Teradyne; the Ventura County Star is a daily newspaper published in Camarillo and serves all of Ventura County, including the Conejo Valley.
The Acorn is a local weekly newspaper covering Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills, Oak Park, North Ranch and Calabasas, while Thousand Oaks Acorn covers the cities of Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Westlake Village. KCLU is the only public radio station in Ventura County. In 2013 the Conejo Valley Tourism Improvement District was formed by the cities of Thousand Oaks and Agoura Hills. CVTID is a non-profit corporation. Conejo Valley's two largest tourist attractions are the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. American Radio Archives and Museum, one of the world's largest collections of radio broadcasting. Conejo Valley Art Museum, art museum at Janss Marketplace in Thousand Oaks. Conejo Valley Botanic Garden, 33 acres botanical gardens, directly across from Tarantula Hill. Gardens of the World, botanical garden across Thousand Oaks Boulevard from the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center. Grant R. Brimhall Library, one of the largest libraries in Southern California.
Joel McCrea Ranch, 19th century ranch at the bottom of the Norwegian Grade. Listed on the U. S. National Register of Historic Places. Paramount Ranch, movie ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains of Agoura Hills. Pederson House and Water Tower, home built by the Norwegian Colony
Oak Park, California
Oak Park is an unincorporated community in Ventura County, United States. When developed in the Simi Hills in the late 1960s, a single road provided the only access to the community from Agoura Hills, California, in neighboring Los Angeles County; as of the 2010 census, Oak Park had a population of 14,266, down from 14,625 at the 2000 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Oak Park as a census-designated place; the census definition of the area may not correspond to local understanding of the area with the same name. Oak Park is the biggest unincorporated community in Ventura County. Residents of the community have through votes declined to set up an independent city, declined to be annexed into neighboring Thousand Oaks. Oak Park has had human occupation from about 5500 B. C. to the present day. It lies within a zone including inland Chumash Indians. Indians camped throughout the area as they collected acorns and other food; the sites in the area include smaller camps and several rock shelters.
Chumash people lived here for thousands of years prior to European contact. They lived off of trading and hunting; the Chumash settled in Oak Park due to an abundance of natural resources, including fresh water and rabbit-hunting. It is one of the oldest occupied places in California; the location of Oak Park was part of Rancho Simi, a Spanish land concession in Alta California given in 1795 to Francisco Javier Pico, a soldier of the Santa Barbara company, his two brothers, Patricio Pico and Miguel Pico by the Spanish government. Lindero Canyon Road follows the western border-line of the land grant. Throughout the 20th century, studios used the area in particular westerns. Movies filmed locally include The Red A Walk in the Sun. Oak Park was formed from ranchland owned by Jim and Marian Jordan, stars of the radio show Fibber McGee and Molly; the land was purchased by Metropolitan Development Corporation in the 1960s. Homes were developed starting in the late 1960s. Kanan-Dume Road was the only access road to the community, from Agoura Hills, California, in neighboring Los Angeles County.
As such, the community was served by police and firefighters based in the nearest Ventura County city, Thousand Oaks, 10 miles away, with L. A. County services responding when able. In 1967 Ventura County officials who were concerned about the isolation of the community proposed a land swap with L. A. County, but they were rebuffed; the isolation—coupled with the distance to junior and senior high schools—also drove down the property values, homeowners found it difficult to sell their properties. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors created a Municipal Advisory Council in 1975 to represent the community to County agencies; the MAC persuaded the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to trim Metropolitan Development Corp.'s initial development plan from a population of 26,000. Today there are about 15,000 residents. All available land within Oak Park has now been developed, with the remaining vacant land owned by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District; the community was served by the Simi Valley Unified School District, with the nearest post-elementary schools being Sinaloa Junior High and Royal High.
Since the Simi Valley Unified School District had no plans to build post-elementary schools in Oak Park, the residents seceded and formed Oak Park Unified School District in June 1977. Medea Creek Middle School started at the current location of the school district in 1980 using portable classrooms; the campus was affectionately called "Bungalow Hill" by students. The middle school was grades 6-8, with sixth-graders spending morning hours at Brookside Elementary and afternoons at the middle school; the following year when Oak Park High School opened for classes, Medea Creek Middle School shared the campus. Oak Park High School's class of 1983 was the first graduating class, they were the maiden class. In 1999 the United States Postal Service assigned Oak Park its own ZIP code, 91377. Oak Park shared the ZIP code 91301 with its neighboring town of Agoura Hills. Oak Park is situated in southeastern Ventura County, it is bordered on the west by North Ranch and on the south by the LA County cities of Agoura Hills and Westlake Village.
It borders the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to the north. Oak Park is located at 34 ° 10' 18" 118 ° 45' 28" West, it is bordered by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area on the north and east and Rancho Simi Open Space on the south. It sits within valleys in the Simi Hills capped by Simi Peak which borders the community to the north; the elevation in Oak Park varies from 960 to 2,157 feet above sea level. The CDP has a total area of 5.29 sq mi. All of the area is none of it is covered by water. However, there are many small creeks in the area; the largest of these creeks are Medea Creek and Lindero Creek, which are tributaries of Malibu Creek, the only waterway that pierces the Santa Monica Mountains. The Malibu Creek watershed contains 225 stream segments; as of 2012, Oak Park was home to 5,200 housing units. The 2010 United States Census reported that Oak Park had a population of 14,266; the population density was 2,610.6 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Oak Park was 11,473 White, 141 African American, 32 Native American, 1,556 Asi
Oxnard, California
Oxnard is a city in Ventura County, United States. Located along the coast of Southern California, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 19th most populous city in California. Incorporated in 1903, the city lies 60 miles west of downtown Los Angeles and is part of the larger Greater Los Angeles area, it is located at the western edge of the fertile Oxnard Plain, sitting adjacent to an agricultural center of strawberries and lima beans. Oxnard is a major transportation hub in Southern California, with Amtrak, Union Pacific, Metrolink and Intercalifornias stopping in Oxnard. Oxnard has a small regional airport called Oxnard Airport; the population of Oxnard is 207,906. Oxnard is the most populous city in the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, listed as one of the wealthiest areas in America, with most of its residents making well above the average national income. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area, now Oxnard was inhabited by Chumash Native Americans.
The first European to encounter the area was Portuguese explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho, who claimed it for Spain in 1542. During the mission period, it was serviced by the Mission San Buenaventura, established in 1782. Ranching began to take hold among Californio settlers, who lost their regional influence when California became a US state in 1850. At about the same time, the area was settled by American farmers, who cultivated barley and lima beans. Henry T. Oxnard, founder of today's Moorhead, Minnesota-based American Crystal Sugar Company who operated a successful sugar beet factory with his three brothers in Chino, was enticed to build a $2 million factory on the plain inland from Port Hueneme. Shortly after the 1897 beet campaign, a new town emerged, now commemorated on the National Register of Historic Places as the Henry T. Oxnard Historic District. Oxnard intended to name the settlement after the Greek word for "sugar", but frustrated by bureaucracy, named it after himself. Given the growth of the town of Oxnard, in the spring of 1898, a railroad station was built to service the plant, which attracted a population of Chinese and Mexican laborers and enough commerce to merit the designation of a town.
The Oxnard brothers, who never lived in their namesake city, sold both the Chino and the giant red-brick Oxnard factory in 1899 for nearly $4 million. The Oxnard factory with its landmark twin smokestacks operated from August 19, 1899 until October 26, 1959. Factory operations were interrupted in the Oxnard Strike of 1903. Oxnard was incorporated as a California city on June 30, 1903, the public library was opened in 1907. Prior to and during World War II, the naval bases of Point Mugu and Port Hueneme were established in the area to take advantage of the only major navigable port on California's coast between the Port of Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay, the bases in turn encouraged the development of the defense-based aerospace and communications industries. In the mid-20th century Oxnard grew and developed the areas outside the downtown with homes, retail, a new harbor named Channel Islands Harbor. Martin V. Smith became the most influential developer in the history of Oxnard during this time.
Smith's first enterprise in 1941 was the Colonial House Restaurant and the Wagon Wheel Junction in 1947. He was involved in the development of the high-rise towers at the Topa Financial Plaza, the Channel Islands Harbor, Casa Sirena Resort, the Esplanade Shopping Mall, Fisherman's Wharf, the Carriage Square Shopping Center, the Maritime Museum, many other major hotel and retail projects. In June 2004, the Oxnard Police Department and the Ventura County Sheriff imposed a gang injunction over a 6.6-square-mile area of the central district of the city, in order to restrict gang activity. The injunction was upheld in the Ventura County Superior Court and made a permanent law in 2005. A similar injunction was imposed in September 2006 over a 4.26-square-mile area of the south side of the city. Oxnard is located on an area with fertile soil. With its beaches, wetlands and the Santa Clara River, the area contains a number of important biological communities. Native plant communities include: coastal sage scrub, California Annual Grassland, Coastal Dune Scrub species.
Native to the region is the endangered Ventura Marsh Milkvetch, the last self-sustaining population is in Oxnard in the center of a approved high-end housing development. The city of Oxnard is home to over 20 miles of scenic uncrowded coastline; the beaches in Oxnard are large and the sand is exceptionally soft. The sand dunes in Oxnard, which were once much more extensive, have been used to recreate Middle-Eastern desert dunes in many movies, the first being The Sheik with Rudolph Valentino. There are few rocks or driftwood piles at most beaches, but Oxnard is known to have dangerous rip-currents at certain beaches. Oxnard has good surfing at many of its beaches. Beaches in Oxnard include: Ormond Beach, Silver Strand Beach, Hollywood Beach, Hollywood-by-the-Sea, Mandalay Beach, Oxnard Beach Park, Oxnard Shores, 5th Street Beach, Mandalay State Beach, McGrath State Beach and Rivermouth Beach; the Santa Clara River separates Ventura. Tributaries to this river include Sespe Creek, Piru Creek, Castaic Creek.
Oxnard is on a tectonically active plate, since most of Coastal California is near the boundaries between the Pacific a
