San Bernardino County history: Origin of the Inland Empire

Black and white photo featuring a small town with houses, settlers and a horse-drawn cart with mountains in the background. — *San Bernardino in 1862.*

By the late 1800s, local entrepreneurs often created nicknames to attract railroads and miners in hopes of spurring regional development. It is believed that developers in present-day San Bernardino and Riverside counties introduced the term “Inland Empire” to promote the region’s distinct features.

The Inland portion of the name is said to derive from the region’s location being roughly 60 miles inland from Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. A similar example can be seen in cases like Redlands and Riverside, which were nicknamed the Orange Empire due to millions of oranges and other fruits sold in this region during the turn of the 19th century.

The term Inland Empire may have first appeared in the Riverside Press to describe Riverside County in April 1914. Also, between October 1920 and 1992, the San Bernardino Daily Sun ran an Inland Empire News section to describe the San Bernardino Valley.

Beginning in the 1950s, the state Department of Commerce grouped the region together under the name Inland Empire as an economic term meaning everything east of Los Angeles. Unlike most metropolitan areas that developed around a central city, the Inland Empire doesn’t have a main city. The region has also been referred to as “the 909,” after one of the most commonly used area codes.

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau defines this region as the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, covering more than 27,000 square miles with a population of over 4.6 million.

The information in this historical feature was originally part of a video series produced by the Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk’s office.

Additional County Update News – January 15