San Gabriel (Spanish for “St. Gabriel”) is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California. Take a look below for 15 fun and awesome facts about San Gabriel, California, United States.

1. At the 2010 census, the population was 39,718.

2. San Gabriel was founded by the Spanish in 1771, when Mission San Gabriel Arcángel was established by Saint Junípero Serra.

3. Through the Spanish and Mexican periods, San Gabriel played an important role in the development of Los Angeles and Californio society.

4. Owing to the prominence of Mission San Gabriel in the region’s history, it is often called the “birthplace of the Los Angeles region”.

5. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish to Alta California, the area that is now San Gabriel was inhabited by the Tongva Native Americans, whom the Spanish called the Gabrieleño.

6. The Tongva name for the San Gabriel region has been reconstructed as Shevaa.

7. Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded by Father Junípero Serra, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and is known as the “Pride of the California Missions.”

8. The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel served a pivotal role in the Californio society, with many of the area’s first Mexican settlers being baptized at the mission, including future governor Pio Pico, who was born in 1801 at the mission and baptized there the same year. He was appointed as California’s governor twice, serving briefly in 1832 and again from 1845 through the Mexican–American War. Later in life, he was elected as a Los Angeles City councilman.[13] The city of Pico Rivera was named to honor him as the last governor of California to be born in Mexico.

9. In 1853, a company of Army Engineers, which included the geologist William P. Blake, passed by the mission in search of the best route for an intercontinental railroad. Blake observed that the once great vineyards had fallen into wild disarray. Fences were in disrepair and animals roamed freely through the property. But the mission bells were ringing and the church was still in use.

10. In the first United States census made in California in 1860, 586 people lived in the San Gabriel township, an area encompassing the mission lands and several adjacent ranchos stretching north to what is now Pasadena.

11. By 1870, the population had shrunk to 436.

12. San Gabriel incorporated as a city April 24, 1913, with a population of 1,500.

13. This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, San Gabriel has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated “Csa” on climate maps.

14. In the state legislature San Gabriel is located in the 21st Senate District, represented by Democrat Anthony Portantino, and in the 49th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Ed Chau.

15. In the United States House of Representatives, San Gabriel is in California’s 27th congressional district, represented by Democrat Judy Chu.