Our Neighborhood

As we leave the Santa Clarita Valley we travel through Agua Dulce, home to the stunning Vasquez Rock formations named after the notorious bandit, Tiburcio Vasquez, who used the rocks as a hiding place to avoid capture by authorities. You may also recognize this area from the movie The Flintstones as the site of the town of Bedrock.

Coming into view is the picturesque community of Acton, known as the "Gateway to the Antelope Valley." It was known in the 1800's as a gold mining center and was nearly crowned the Capitol of California, but lost by one vote to Sacramento—the state's current Capitol. Acton, today, boasts sprawling ranches dotting the hilly slopes that also produce peaches, pears, honey and the most beautiful lilacs anywhere.

Ten miles up the freeway, we pass the Pearblossom Highway and to the east, the communities of Littlerock—the "Fruit Basket of the Valley"—and Pearblossom. Continuing north, over the next pass, lies the 2500 square-mile region known as the Antelope Valley with the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster stretched out over the desert.

Scottish families settled in Lancaster (named after the founder's hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania) in 1880 after he purchased about 2330 acres from the Southern Pacific Railroad for a few dollars an acre. A similar scene occurred in Palmdale in 1884 when settlers of German and Swiss heritage migrated from the Midwest and named their new community "Palmenthal," mistaking the joshua trees for palm trees. With the completion of the Palmdale-Littlerock Dam in 1924, the local water problems were alleviated and arid desert lands were turned into fertile green fields with crops such as alfalfa, wheat, fruits and nuts, vegetables and citrus spurring the Antelope Valley's growth as an important agricultural center. Lancaster is host to the annual California Poppy Festival (California's state flower) every April when the flowers are at the height of their vivid display of color.

The Antelope Valley continued its growth in the 1940's when the Air Force decided that a 300,000-acre dry lake bed would be an ideal location for an Air Force Base and test flight center. In the early days of jet aircraft development the Antelope Valley played host to such famed test pilots as Gen. Chuck Yeager and Col. Pete Knight. Edwards Air Force Base (which is the second largest in the nation) is situated just north of Lancaster and is one of the two landing sites for the Space Shuttle and the future launch site for the X-33, the new generation Space Shuttle.

The aerospace and defense industries play a major role in employment in the Antelope Valley with a highly skilled labor force of over 20,000 employees. Air Force Plant 42 is home to many defense contractors, including Boeing and Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works. Major projects now underway at Plant 42 include continued production of B-2 Stealth Bomber, modifications to the B-1B Bomber and F-117 Stealth Fighter, and development of the military's new generation fighter, the Joint Strike Fighter.

Antelope Valley College is located in Lancaster and provides a fully accredited, 2-year liberal arts curriculum for the students of the Antelope Valley. Antelope Valley College also shares a portion of its campus with California State University at Bakersfield in effort to provide quality continuing education for residents of the valley.

Helpful Resources:
Palmdale- www.cityofpalmdale.org
Lancaster- www.cityoflancasterca.org