'''ONTARIO'''

is a city located in San Bernardino County, California, United States, 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire region, it lies just east of the Los Angeles county line and is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 163,924, down from 170,373 at the 2000 census, making it the county's fourth most populous city after San Bernardino, Fontana, and Rancho Cucamonga.
The city is home to the LA/Ontario International Airport which is the 15th busiest cargo airport in the United States. Ontario handles the mass of freight traffic between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the rest of the country. It is also the home of Ontario Mills and former home of the Ontario Motor Speedway.
It takes its name from the Ontario Model Colony development established in 1882 by the Canadian engineer George Chaffey and his brothers William Chaffey and Charles Chaffey. They named the settlement after their home province of Ontario, Canada.

HISTORY

Interwiki: Ref improve section » date=April 2010
The area that is now Ontario was part of the lands used for hunting and foraging by the semi-nomadic Tongva Serrano (Gabrieleño) Indians, who were known to roam as far south as the western San Bernardino Mountains. At the time of Mexican and later of American settlement, active Native American settlements were scattered across the entire valley. Remains of a Serrano village were discovered in the neighboring foothills of the present-day city of Claremont.
Juan Bautista de Anza friend of the land owner of Rancho Cucamonga at Township 1 South Range 7 West, Tiburcio Tapia, leaving him the assistance of the Cahuilla Indians from Anza, whom were under no control of any Spanish establishments. Other than the street and middle school named after De Anza, the only other artifact representing this expedition of De Anza and the Cahullia Tribe is a structure (still standing at 1007 East Main Street in the city's current Quiet Home Acquisition Project Area) and is not currently recognized for its significance. 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 Highway (present-day Foothill Blvd).
The 1834 secularization of California land holdings resulted in the land's transferral to private hands. In 1881, the Chaffey brothers 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 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" because they originally hailed from Ontario, Canada.
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.
Agriculture was vital to the early economy, and many street names recall this legacy. The Sunkist plant also 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 at an astronomical rate, increasing 10 times in the next half a century. The population of 20,000 in the 1960s again grew 10 times more by the year 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. However, 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 southern side facing State Route 60 and Chino.

GEOGRAPHY

Ontario is located at 34°3' North, 117°38' West (34.05, -117.63).Interwiki: GR » 1
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of Interwiki: convert » 50.0|sqmi|km2. Of that, Interwiki: convert » 49.9|sqmi|km2 is land and Interwiki: convert » 0.1|sqmi|km2 is water. The total area is 0.13% water.

ECONOMY

Category: File - :GraberOliveHouseVatRoom.JPG|thumb|right|250px|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.
Category: File - :Ontario Mills sign.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Ontario Mills
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.
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.
Today, Ontario still has a manufacturing industry, the most notable of which is the Maglite corporation, which produces flashlights there. However, manufacturing has waned, and today Ontario's economy is dominated by service industries and warehousing. Much of southern Ontario still contains dairy farms and other agricultural farms. 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.
Ontario is also home to Famous Stars and Straps, Shiekh Shoes both are clothing company, and to Phoenix Motorcars, who employs over 150 employees in Ontario.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Interwiki: USCensusPop »
|1890 = 683
|1900 = 722
|1910 = 4274
|1920 = 7280
|1930 = 13583
|1940 = 14197
|1950 = 22872
|1960 = 46617
|1970 = 64118
|1980 = 88820
|1990 = 133179
|2000 = 170373
|2010 = 163924

POLITICS

In the state legislature Ontario is located in the 32nd Senate District, represented by Democrat Gloria Negrete McLeod, and in the 61st Assembly District, represented by Democrat Norma Torres. Federally, Ontario is located in California's 43rd congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of D +13 and is represented by Democrat Joe Baca.

EDUCATION

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Ontario has 25 public elementary schools, six public middle schools and five public high schools under the combined oversight of four school districts. There are also several private schools throughout the city as well as two private military schools. Ontario also has nine trade schools. Providence Christian College, a four-year Christian liberal arts college, opened in 2005. The University of La Verne College of Law and Chaffey College Ontario Campus are located in downtown Ontario. National University and Chapman University have a satellite campus near the Ontario Mills mall.


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