Rancho Cucamonga: California's Grapevine Capital on Route Sixty-Six

In eighteen thirty-nine the Mexican government granted Tiburcio Tapia thirteen thousand acres in the Inland Valley east of Los Angeles. He planted grapes and built the winery that still anchors the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Vineyard Avenue. Later, Hugh Thomas bought the property and it became a thriving stop along Route sixty-six.

By nineteen seventeen, the Cucamonga Valley had more than twenty thousand acres under vine, and by Prohibition it produced more wine grapes than Napa and Sonoma Counties combined. The sandy soil and warm inland climate produced wines that shipped nationwide. Urban sprawl eventually swallowed most of the vineyards, but the Thomas Winery structure survived and is now California Historical Landmark number four hundred ninety.

The city incorporated in nineteen seventy-seven, taking the name Rancho Cucamonga from the old Mexican land grant whose vines once stretched as far as the eye could see.