Moreno Valley in the Twenty-first Century is a zesty blend of Spanish exploration in the New World, Native American culture, the fabled Western frontier of the late 1800’s and hard working Americans seeking security and the good life for themselves and their families.

Native American campsites and small villages were common in the region for a thousand years or more. Even today, the remains of rudimentary implements and pictographs can be found in the granite of the hills surrounding the valley.

In 1774 Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza led the first overland expedition to Alta California, passing through our valley and remarking on the abundance of wildlife, especially birds (the region lies directly beneath the great Pacific Flyway migratory route between North and South America).

As America “tamed” the West, the fabled Butterfield Stage Line established a station in Moreno Valley. Wyatt Earp passed through frequently and lived in the general area. Frank and Jessie James were occasional visitors en route to a favorite spot in the Elsinore Mountains.

The modern history of the area can be traced to the opening in 1883 of what is today the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe railway line from the Mexican border, along the present route of the rail line at the western edge of the city, to San Bernardino.

A 10,000-acre tract was recorded alongside the rail line in 1887, about where today’s March Air Reserve Base stands. Named Alessandro in honor of the hero Helen Hunt Jackson’s famed novel “Romona”, the community was expected to become a major agricultural center but faced water and financial problems from the beginning.

As Alessandro was being founded, however, entrepreneurs were building the dam that created Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. Water from the lake was expected to irrigate rich lands to the south just waiting for the plow, all the way through Redlands, the Moreno Valley and beyond.

In 1890 the Bear Valley and Alessandro Development Company established the town of Moreno about five miles to the east of Alessandro and named it in honor of Frank E. Brown, who was instrumental in the land and water development plan. (Moreno means brown in Spanish) With great fanfare, water from Big Bear Lake arrived in both Moreno and Alessandro, and land that had previously sold for $1.25 an acre was commanding $100.

By the mid-1890s, drought had set in and Redlands had first claim on the water. Subsequently, Alessandro evaporated completely. Moreno was reduced to a few hearty families, but it is still a residential area that is the oldest part of the Modern City.

Meanwhile, however, commercial and development interests from Riverside and Los Angeles laid out the Sunnymead Orchard Tract in 1912, about halfway between the two earlier communities. The Town was located alongside a roadway from Riverside eastward to Hemet and the Banning Pass. The convenient site seems to have worked magic, for the community held on and is today the central part of the city.

In the waning days of World War One, the War Department established an Air Corps training base at the old Alessandro town site in 1918, naming it March Field. Through the years, the base became one of the most important in all the Air Force, and today is the largest base in the country for air reserve forces.

To the north of march Field is Box Springs Mountain, so-named because early pioneers “boxed in” a spring of cool, fresh water for the convenience of travelers on the old San Bernardino-Temecula wagon road that approximated the route of today’s Interstate 215.

At the southern foot of Box Springs Mountain, between it and March Field, the community of Edgemont was established in 1923 as a site for poultry ranches. The poultry are long gone, but Edgemont survives as the westernmost of the three communities comprising Moreno Valley. Perhaps the secret of its longevity is the advantage it shares with Sunnymead of having been located alongside a major route of commerce. The rail line that spawned Alessandro skirts Edgemont on the west.

Between the world wars, and through the 1950s, Edgemont also had the advantage of being the settlement closest to March Field, thus becoming home to many of the military families stationed at the base.

By the mid-60s with the U.S. engaged in Vietnam, March Field had grown to hugh proportions and Moreno, Edgemont and Sunnymead had all become permanent communities. There were an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people living in the valley. Lake Perris, at the south edge of the valley, received its first State Water Project water in 1973, further enhancing the attractiveness of the region for family living.

Many residents of the three communities saw the advantages of incorporation, but attempts in 1961, 1969 and 1982 failed before voters finally established the City of Moreno Valley in 1984. The fledgling city’s population was 47,000.

Southern California boomed in the 1980s and early ‘90s and Moreno Valley was the beneficiary of much of that growth. At one time the fastest growing city in the United States, the population reached over 180,000 by the year 2009. What had once been the site of fruit and nut orchards, citrus groves, melons, row crops and dry-land wheat had been transformed. Today Moreno Valley is Riverside County’s second largest city and is renowned for its parks and recreation facilities, catering to young families as well as “old timers” who work to preserve the area’s rich heritage.