San Bernardino ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the 18th–most populous city in California. The Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan area at 4.74 million residents is the 12th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. San Bernardino is the economic, cultural, and political hub of the San Bernardino Valley, sharing that distinction for the wider Inland Empire with its twin city of Riverside.
San Bernardino was named in 1810, when Spanish priest Francisco Dumetz led an expedition through the area. In 1839, the Mexican government granted Californio ranchero José del Carmen Lugo the right to settle the area, which was formalized when he was granted Rancho San Bernardino in 1842. Following the American Conquest of California, the largely unsettled rancho was purchased by Mormon settlers who founded the town of San Bernardino in 1851, later incorporated as a city in 1854. After most of the Mormons left in 1857, the city grew significantly in the late 19th century as a commercial hub at the crossroads between Southern California and the American Southwest. Today, San Bernardino is an important hub for the Inland Empire and Southern California. The governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico have established the metropolitan area's only consulates in the downtown area. Furthermore, the city's University District serves as a college town, as it is home to California State University, San Bernardino.
History
Indigenous The city of San Bernardino, California, occupies much of the San Bernardino Valley, a valley long inhabited by the Tongva. Several of their villages dotted the San Bernardino valley prior to the arrival of Europeans in the valley. Kaawchama was perhaps the most significant in the region, being a regional center for trade that was connected to villages in Southern California and the Colorado River through the Mohave Trail, that was used by the Mohave, Serrano, Cahuilla, Payomkawichum, and others. The village was located in the eastern expanse of Tovaangar, and was established along the Santa Ana River.
Spanish and Mexican era With the establishment of Mission San Gabriel in 1771, Spanish missionaries traveling through the area expressed a desire to establish a supply station in the area, which became the Guachama Rancheria. The settlement was also referred to as Politana and became the first Spanish settlement in what they referred to as San Bernardino Valley, named for Bernardino of Siena, being established in 1810 as a mission chapel and supply station by the Mission San Gabriel.
Two years later the settlement was destroyed by local tribesmen, following powerful earthquakes that shook the region. Several years later, the Serrano and Mountain Cahuilla rebuilt the Guachama Rancheria, and in 1819 invited the missionaries to return to the valley. They did and established the San Bernardino de Sena Estancia. Serrano and Cahuilla people inhabited Politana until long after the 1830s decree of secularization and the 1842 inclusion into the Rancho San Bernardino land grant of the José del Carmen Lugo family.
Post-Conquest era
The area was not largely settled until 1851, following the American Conquest of California. The first Anglo-American colony was established by pioneers associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1851. San Bernardino County was formed in 1853 from parts of Los Angeles County. Mormons laid out the town based on the "City of Zion" plan which was typical of Mormon urban planning. Mormon colonists developed irrigated, commercial farming and lumbering, supplying agricultural produce and lumber throughout Southern California.
The city was officially incorporated in 1857. Later that year, most of the colonists were recalled by Brigham Young in 1857 due to the Utah War. Some Mormons would stay in San Bernardino and some later returned from Utah, but a real estate consortium from El Monte and Los Angeles bought most of the lands of the old rancho and of the departing colonists. They sold these lands to new settlers who came to dominate the culture and politics in the county, and San Bernardino became a typical American frontier town. Many of the new land owners disliked the sober Mormons, indulging in drinking at saloons now allowed in the town. Disorder, fighting and violence in the vicinity became common, reaching a climax in the 1859 Ainsworth–Gentry Affair.
In 1860 a gold rush began in the mountains nearby with the discovery of gold by William F. Holcomb in Holcomb Valley early 1860. Another strike followed in the upper reach of Lytle Creek. By the 1860s, San Bernardino had also become an important trading hub in Southern California. The city, already on the Los Angeles – Salt Lake Road, became the starting point for the Mojave Road from 1858 and Bradshaw Trail from 1862 to the mines along the Colorado River and within the Arizona Territory in the gold rush of 1862–1864.
In a 2007 report in The California Geographer, however, California State University, San Bernardino geography professor Norman Meek noted that the first direct record of the feature appeared in an 1864 photograph taken shortly after the establishment of the health resort by David Noble Smith at the hot springs. No mention of the arrowhead appears in any records of Spanish travelers in the area in the 18th or early 19th centuries, nor in records of Mormon settlement in the area in the 1850s, nor in the first scientific geological survey conducted in the area of the feature in 1853. Meek conducted analysis of soil samples, finding no significant difference in substrate composition of arrowhead itself compared to its surroundings aside from increased traces of fire retardant chemicals used for wildfire control, casting doubt on the hypothesis that the feature could be explained as a purely natural formation. Based on this, and the sudden increase in reports and purported legends of the arrowhead in late 19th century reporting and advertising for the resort, Meek contended that "the arrowhead may be a human-made advertisement created sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s, perhaps by the founder of the hot springs resort". He suggested that the feature may have been constructed with the help of local native tribespeople, possibly modifying a landslide scar.Meek, Norman (2007). Origin of the Arrowhead landmark near San Bernardino, California, The California Geographer 47: 27–41.
By 1889, word of the springs, along with the hotel on the site (and a belief in the effect on general health of the water from the springs) had grown considerably. Hotel guests often raved about the crystal-clear water from the cold springs, which prompted Seth Marshall to set up a bottling operation in the hotel's basement. By 1905, water from the cold springs was being shipped to Los Angeles under the newly created "Arrowhead" trademark.
Indigenous people of the San Bernardino Valley and Mountains were collectively identified by Spanish explorers in the 19th century as Serrano, a term meaning highlander. Serrano living near what is now Big Bear Lake were called Yuhaviatam, or "People of the Pines". In 1866, to clear the way for settlers and gold miners, state militia conducted a 32-day campaign slaughtering men, women, and children. Yuhaviatam leader Santos Manuel guided his people from their ancient homeland to a village site in the San Bernardino foothills. The United States government in 1891 established it as a tribal reservation and named it after Santos Manuel.
In 1867, the first Chinese immigrants arrived in San Bernardino.
In 1883, California Southern Railroad established a rail link through San Bernardino between Los Angeles and the rest of the country.
Modern era
In 1905, the city of San Bernardino passed its first charter.
Norton Air Force Base was established during World War II. In 1994, Norton Air Force Base closed to become San Bernardino International Airport.
In 1940, Richard and Maurice McDonald founded McDonald's, along with its innovative restaurant concept, in the city. In 1955, Glen Bell started his first taco stand after learning from Gloria Hoyle at Mitla Café, later developing into the first Taco Bell.
San Bernardino won the All-America City award in 1977.
On May 12, 1989, a massive derailment took place along Duffy Street at the Muscoy area, when a Southern Pacific trona train lost control while descending the Cajon Pass. The disaster killed 4 people and destroyed seven homes. Then, on May 25, an underground petroleum pipeline ruptured, killing 2 more people and burning down 11 more homes.
In August 2012, San Bernardino filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, with more than $1 billion in debt. The move froze the city's payments to creditors, including its pension payments to the California Public Employees' Retirement System for nearly a year. San Bernardino became the largest city at the time to file for a Chapter 9 bankruptcy; this was superseded by Detroit's filing in July 2013. Following a judge's approval, the city emerged from bankruptcy in February 2017, making it one of the longest municipal bankruptcies in the United States.
On December 2, 2015, a terrorist attack left 14 people dead and 22 seriously injured.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.53%, is water.
The city lies in the San Bernardino foothills and the eastern portion of the San Bernardino Valley, roughly east of Los Angeles. Some major geographical features of the city include the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Bernardino National Forest, in which the city's northernmost neighborhood, Arrowhead Springs, is located. At the base of the mountains lies the San Andreas Fault, which passes through the northern areas of the city, and where several smaller faults lie in close proximity. The Cajon Pass adjacent to the northwest border; City Creek, Lytle Creek, San Timoteo Creek, Twin Creek, Warm Creek (as modified through flood control channels) feed the Santa Ana River, which forms part of the city's southern border south of San Bernardino International Airport. The city has several notable hills and mountains; among them are Perris Hill (named after Fred Perris, an early engineer, and the namesake of Perris, California); Kendall Hill (which is near California State University); and Little Mountain, which rises among Shandin Hills (generally bounded by Sierra Way, 30th Street, Kendall Drive, and Interstate 215).
San Bernardino is unique among Southern Californian cities because of its wealth of water, which is mostly contained in underground aquifers.
Seccombe Lake is a man-made lake at Sierra Way and 5th Street. It is named after a former mayor.
Muscupiabe is a suburban neighborhood in the city, located about north of the civic center. Its name comes from the Indigenous Serrano meaning "place of little pines" due to its location near the Cajon mountain pass' pine trees. Muscupiabe borders three California freeways, California State Route 210, California State Route 259 and I-215, hence the neighborhood's nickname, the Triangle. Muscupiabe is primarily home to single family homes with large lots, mature leafy willows, and tall pines.
Climate