Calimesa (portmanteau of California and Mesa, Spanish for “table”) is a city in Riverside County, California, United States in the Greater Los Angeles area. Take a look below for 20 awesome and amazing facts about Calimesa, California, United States.
1. The population was 7,879 at the 2010 census, up from 7,139 at the 2000 census.
2. It is situated in the San Gorgonio Pass.
3. Historically, Calimesa began as a small rural town with mostly single-family homes and ranches. With completion of U.S. Route 99 (modern day I-10), businesses opened and Calimesa began to take on a separate identity from the larger neighboring town of Yucaipa.
4. In June 1929, nearly 100 residents attended a meeting and decided to apply for their own post office and to start a “name contest” in which the winner was paid $10.
5. Calimesa was chosen from 107 names submitted, and is said to come from “cali” (referring to California) and “mesa” from the Spanish word meaning “table” or “table-lands.” The first post office was the grocery store at Calimesa Boulevard and Avenue K.
6. The modern history of the area was initiated with the establishment of Spanish missions in Alta California in 1769.
7. The need for a land route to these missions inspired Captain Juan Bautista de Anza to lead a party through the area in 1774. As early as 1820, reference can be found to the messenger footpath for the missions in Arizona to the San Gabriel Mission.
8. The Assistencia in Redlands (which has been rebuilt), and Rancho San Gorgonio, were part of the San Gabriel Mission located near today’s Los Angeles. The San Gorgonio rancheria covered most of the San Gorgonio Pass area.
9. A site within the rancheria, the location of the present Highland Springs Ranch & Inn, along with Whitewater, and a house at the east end of present-day Singleton Road in Calimesa, all became stage stops along this path.
10. The post office reinforced the residents’ feeling of a community separate from the town of Yucaipa. In 1939 or 1940, the Calimesa Improvement Association, Inc. was formed. According to the constitution of the association, “The object and purpose of the association shall be the development and improvement of Calimesa and The Community”.
11. Volunteers built a community center at the corner of Bryant and Avenue H, which had been designated a park site by the Redlands-Yucaipa Land Company. The “South Mesa Water Company” purchased the land for a well site and allowed the association to use it for community events.
12. In 1962, the Calimesa Improvement Association became the Calimesa Chamber of Commerce. The Improvement Association and the Chamber have operated as a mix of promoting Calimesa, providing community service, and being a sounding board for residents’ problems.
13. Prior to 1949, the fire protection for the valley was provided by the California Department of Forestry at the Avenue A station, which today is the office of County Service Area 63 in Yucaipa. Calimesa community members felt the need for more protection on the south side of the wash, so in 1949 they formed the Volunteer Fire Department.
14. The City of Calimesa was incorporated on December 1, 1990, soon after the incorporation of its northern neighbor, the City of Yucaipa. Prior to its incorporation, the City of Calimesa existed as an unincorporated census designated town that straddled the Riverside–San Bernardino County line at the location where Interstate 10 climbs the San Gorgonio Pass going eastward from Redlands, California.
15. The previous decade saw several planned communities approved for development within the city, including the JP Ranch Development (approximately 750 total homes), Calimesa Springs Development (approximately 270 homes), Summerwind Ranch at Oak Valley (3,841 homes, 260 acres of mixed-use commercial), and Mesa Verde (3,500 homes, and 64 acres of mixed-use commercial space). The number of approved units currently outnumbers the total population within the city. However, development of these large tracts have been slow to move forward until the demand increases.
16. The Sandalwood Fire, which started October 10, 2019, burned for five days.
17. Public education for most Calimesa children is provided by the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, with the remaining southernmost area now served by the neighboring Beaumont Unified School District. Few of the existing “developed” portions of the city are currently within the Beaumont boundaries, but the area within the Beaumont Unified School District boundaries is the fastest growing area of town.
18. The City of Calimesa is within two school districts; the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District serves the western portion of the city, while the southeastern end of the city is served by the Beaumont Unified School District. There is currently only one public school in Calimesa, Mesa View Middle School, which opened in late August 2009. Mesa View was built to be the school district’s second high school. However, due to a slowdown in home construction, the district is facing declining enrollment.
19. As a result, Mesa View will remain a middle school until growth requires a change. In November 2017, a 13-year-old student at Mesa View Middle School who was frequently bullied committed suicide, increasing global awareness about bullying and suicide among young adults.
20. Calimesa Elementary School is actually located within the City of Yucaipa, and high school students attend Yucaipa High School. Calimesa’s only currently-operating elementary school—and only currently operating high school—is Mesa Grande Academy, a private K-12 school owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
