San Jacinto ( , ; ) is a city in

Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...

, United States. It is located at the north end of the

San Jacinto Valley The San Jacinto Valley is a valley located in Riverside County, California, Riverside County, in Southern California, in the Inland Empire. The valley is located at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains in the east and Santa Rosa Hills (Riverside ...

, with Hemet to its south and Beaumont to its north. The mountains associated with the valley are the

San Jacinto Mountains The San Jacinto Mountains ()Munro, P., et al. ''A Mojave Dictionary''. Los Angeles: UCLA. 1992. are a mountain range in Riverside County, California, Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles in southern California i ...

. The population was 53,898 at the 2020 census. The city was founded in 1870 and incorporated on April 20, 1888, making it one of the oldest cities in Riverside County. The city is home to Mt. San Jacinto College, a community college founded in 1965. San Jacinto will also be home to the eastern end of the Mid County Parkway, a planned route that would eventually connect it to the city of Perris. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the city became a home to many dairies, and a center for agriculture. San Jacinto also is home to the Soboba Casino, a

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

owned and operated by the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians. The Sobobas are sovereign and self-sufficient in community affairs.

History

The

Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an Indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of ...

were the original inhabitants of what later would be called the San Jacinto Valley, having many villages with residents. The ''Anza Trail'', one of the first European overland routes to California, named after

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was a Novohispanic/Mexican expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as on ...

,⁴ crossed the valley in the 1770s. Mission padres named the valley, San Jacinto, which is Spanish for Saint Hyacinth, and around 1820 they established an outpost there. In 1883, the ''San Jacinto Land Association'' laid out the modern city of San Jacinto at ''Five Points''. The railroad arrived in 1888 and the city government was incorporated that same year. The local economy was built on agriculture for many years and the city also received a boost from the many tourists who visited the nearby hot springs. The city, and its residents, helped to start

the Ramona Pageant ''The Ramona Outdoor Play'', formerly known as (and still commonly called) ''The Ramona Pageant'', is an outdoor drama staged annually in Hemet, California, since 1923. It is loosely based on the 1884 novel '' Ramona'' by Helen Hunt Jackson. H ...

( California's official State Outdoor Play), in 1923, and have supported the historic production ever since. On July 15, 1937, San Jacinto was the end point for the longest uninterrupted airplane flight to that date when Mikhail Gromov's crew of three made the historic polar flight from Moscow, USSR, in a

Tupolev ANT-25 The Tupolev ANT-25 was a Soviet long-range experimental aircraft which was also tried as a bomber. First constructed in 1933, it was used by the Soviet Union for a number of record-breaking flights. Development The ANT-25 was designed as the r ...

. This flight followed another similar historic flight over the pole when

Valery Chkalov Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (; ; – 15 December 1938) was a test pilot awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (1936). Early life Chkalov was born to a Russian family in 1904 in the upper Volga region, the town of Chkalovsk, Russia, Vasi ...

's crew of three ended up in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

's Pearson Airfield earlier that same year. With these two flights, the USSR earned two major milestones in the

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The World Air Sports Federation (; FAI) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains worl ...

(FAI) flight records. In the early 1950s the fraternal group

E Clampus Vitus The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization dedicated to the preservation of the heritage of the Western United States, especially the history of the Mother Lode#California Mother Lode, Mother Lode and gold ...

and the Riverside County Department of Transportation commemorated the Gromov flight by erecting a stone marker on Cottonwood Avenue, just west of Sanderson Avenue in west-central San Jacinto. The landing site is also marked by California State Historical Landmark Number 989.

Geography

San Jacinto is located at (33.787119, −116.966672). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 1.59%, is water. The San Jacinto reservoir is an artificial lake used as a basin for the San Diego Aqueduct, a branch of the

Colorado River Aqueduct The Colorado River Aqueduct, or CRA, is a water conveyance in Southern California in the United States, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The aqueduct impounds water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu on ...

, west of town. Since local geological records have been kept, the city has been struck by two large earthquakes, one on Christmas Day in 1899, and the other on April 21, 1918.

Climate

San Jacinto has a

hot-summer mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Csa'') hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters.

Demographics

2020

The 2020 United States census reported that San Jacinto had a population of 53,898. The population density was . The racial makeup of San Jacinto was 33.5%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 8.8%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 2.9% Native American, 3.4% Asian, 0.5%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 33.1% from other races, and 17.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 61.3% of the population. The census reported that 99.5% of the population lived in households, 0.4% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.1% were institutionalized. There were 15,201 households, out of which 47.0% included children under the age of 18, 50.5% were married-couple households, 8.2% were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 26.1% had a female householder with no partner present, and 15.2% had a male householder with no partner present. 16.8% of households were one person, and 8.3% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 3.53. There were 11,845

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(77.9% of all households). The age distribution was 29.5% under the age of 18, 10.2% aged 18 to 24, 26.8% aged 25 to 44, 21.8% aged 45 to 64, and 11.7% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 32.4years. For every 100 females, there were 94.9 males. There were 15,998 housing units at an average density of , of which 15,201 (95.0%) were occupied. Of these, 68.1% were owner-occupied, and 31.9% were occupied by renters. In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $78,281, and the

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

was $26,286. About 12.3% of families and 16.5% of the population were below the poverty line.

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that San Jacinto had a population of 44,199. The population density was . The racial makeup of San Jacinto was 25,272 (57.2%)

(35.1% Non-Hispanic White), 2,928 (6.6%)

, 812 (1.8%) Native American, 1,341 (3.0%) Asian, 124 (0.3%)

, 11,208 (25.4%) from other races, and 2,514 (5.7%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 23,109 persons (52.3%). The Census reported that 43,971 people (99.5% of the population) lived in households, 169 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 59 (0.1%) were institutionalized. There were 13,152 households, out of which 6,460 (49.1%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,954 (52.9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 2,121 (16.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 912 (6.9%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 938 (7.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 111 (0.8%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,459 households (18.7%) were made up of individuals, and 1,231 (9.4%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34. There were 9,987

(75.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.81. The population was spread out, with 14,487 people (32.8%) under the age of 18, 4,404 people (10.0%) aged 18 to 24, 11,885 people (26.9%) aged 25 to 44, 8,755 people (19.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 4,668 people (10.6%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males. There were 14,977 housing units at an average density of , of which 8,943 (68.0%) were owner-occupied, and 4,209 (32.0%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 5.7%; the rental vacancy rate was 10.3%. 28,777 people (65.1% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 15,194 people (34.4%) lived in rental housing units. According to the 2010 United States Census, San Jacinto had a median household income of $47,453, with 18.9% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

Government

Federal: *In the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, San Jacinto is in . State: *In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, San Jacinto is in , and . Local: *In the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, San Jacinto is in the Third District, represented by Chuck Washington. San Jacinto Mayor Andrew Kotyuk

Tourism

San Jacinto has a memorial to veterans at Druding Park is a tribute to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Services. In the park, each branch of the military has an equipment artifact used by its members in battle, as a symbol of their services. There is a tank for the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, a propeller for the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

, an anchor for the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

, a lighthouse for the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

, and in the near future the city government hopes to add a howitzer for the

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

. Various plaques and memorials also grace the park. The city is also home to the Estudillo Mansion, which was home to Francisco Estudillo, who was the city's first postmaster and was elected as the city's second mayor. The mansion also has a twin mansion built by Estudillo's brother, Jose Antonio Estudillo, Jr. The two mansions and the grounds are all that remains of the original Mexican land grant given to the brother's father, Jose Antonio Estudillo in 1842. The mansion was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

and on the California Register of Historic Resources. This is only the third Riverside County site to receive this honor.

Services

Public safety

Police

The city is served by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Fire

The city of San Jacinto contracts for fire and paramedic services with the Riverside County Fire Department through a cooperative agreement with

CAL FIRE The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, colloquially known as CAL FIRE, is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various are ...

. Fire Station 25 is also a CAL FIRE fire station which has a wildland fire engine.

Education

The majority of the city is served by the

San Jacinto Unified School District San Jacinto Unified School District is a public school district located in the central part of Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U. ...

,
Text list
/ref> made up of 12 schools. There is one comprehensive high school,

San Jacinto High School (San Jacinto, California) San Jacinto High School is the sole public high school in the city of San Jacinto, California. The other high school in San Jacinto, Mountain View High School, is a small alternative school located near San Jacinto High's campus. San Jacinto Hi ...

, and a continuation high school, Mountain View High School. There are 7 elementary schools and 3 middle schools in the city, and one independent studies program on the Mountain View High School campus site. A 6–12 magnet school, San Jacinto Leadership Academy, operates on the past Monte Vista Middle School campus, serving nearly 600 children. Portions of San Jacinto are in Hemet Unified School District, and the Nuview Union Elementary School District and Perris Union High School District (for senior high school). The San Jacinto Valley Academy is a K–12 charter school.

Cemetery

The San Jacinto Valley Cemetery District maintains the San Jacinto Valley Cemetery in the city. Notable burials include Danish cartoonist Henning Dahl Mikkelsen who created the strip ''

Ferd'nand ''Ferd'nand'' is a Danish pantomime comic notable for its lack of word balloons and captions and its longevity (over seven decades). It was created by Henning Dahl Mikkelsen and first published in 1937 and new strips continued until the third ...

''.

Arts

The Diamond Valley Arts Council (DVAC) maintains an arts complex called the Esplanade Arts Center (EAC), which features an art gallery, community arts classes, and a performance space home to the Inland Stage Company (ISC).

Sports

Mt. San Jacinto College (the Eagles) has a sports stadium for college football and a gymnasium for college basketball, along with a ball park for a collegiate baseball team the Diamond Valley Sabers of the SCCBL ( Southern California Baseball League) who also play home games in the Diamond Valley Field in Hemet. The So Cal Coyotes of the DFI (Developmental Football International) plays half their home games in the Soboba Casino Oaks Sports Complex and their home field in

Rancho Mirage Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is a low-density desert community with resorts, golf courses, and country clubs within the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. Nestled along the foothills ...

in 2013, but the team has moved their home field to Shadow Hills Stadium in

Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...

in 2018. The Soboba Casino's sports complex also has an indoor sports facility for boxing events held in the Soboba Indian Reservation.

References

External links

*
San Jacinto Museum
{{authority control Cities in Riverside County, California Incorporated cities and towns in California 1870 establishments in California 1888 establishments in California Populated places established in 1888