About 37 mi (60 km)[12] east of Downtown Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga is the 28th most populous city in California.

[13] The city's proximity to major transportation hubs, airports, and highways has attracted the business of several large corporations, including Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Big Lots, Mercury Insurance Group, Southern California Edison, and Amphastar Pharmaceuticals.

[18] In the 18th century, following an expedition led by Gaspar de Portola, the land was incorporated into the Mission System established by Father Junipero Serra and his group of soldiers and Franciscan friars.

After a half century of political jockeying in the region, the land finally came under the control of Juan Bautista Alvarado, governor of Mexico.

On March 3, 1839, Alvarado granted 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) of land in the area called "Cucamonga" to Tubercio Tapia, a first-generation Spanish native of Los Angeles, successful merchant, and notorious smuggler.

The Rains family's home, Casa de Rancho Cucamonga, was completed in 1860 and now appears on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1887, irrigation tunnels were dug into Cucamonga Canyon by Chinese laborers and the Santa Fe Railroad was extended through the area.

Among the town's economic mainstays was agriculture, including olives, peaches, citrus, and, most notably, vineyards.

[17] In 1913, the Pacific Electric Railway was extended through Rancho Cucamonga in an effort to improve crop transportation.

In 1957 the settlement was practically deserted, but there were still rabbit-proof stone walls marking boundaries of previous citrus orchards.

[citation needed] There were 56,618 housing units at an average density of 1,420.1 per square mile (548.3/km2), of which 35,250 (64.8%) were owner-occupied, and 19,133 (35.2%) were occupied by renters.

[citation needed] During 2009–2013, Rancho Cucamonga had a median household income of $77,835, with 6.9% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

This is due to its proximity to two interstate highways and Ontario International Airport, and the space afforded by the large tracts of former agricultural land in the southern section of the city.

This area is ringed by office parks, mostly along Haven Avenue, and shopping strips, such as the Terra Vista Town Center (part of a nearly two-square-mile master-planned community in the center of the city), and malls, such as Victoria Gardens, and the Ontario Mills, across Fourth Street in Ontario.

[52][53][54] The city hosts LoanMart Field (formerly known as The Epicenter), a minor-league baseball stadium, home of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

"[55] Victoria Gardens is a lifestyle center near the eastern end of the city, at the intersection of Foothill and Day Creek Boulevards.

Running from north to south between them is a pedestrian axis leading from one of the Macy's anchor stores, through a "town square" between a pair of mixed-use office buildings, to the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center, which contains the Lewis Playhouse (a 570-seat theater) and a branch of the city library.

The east side of the development has Southern California's first Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World superstore; the 180,000-square-foot (17,000 m2) facility includes a Tracker Boat Center and the Islamorada Fish Company restaurant.

[citation needed] The city's elections, which are plurality, are held on a Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years.

[60] Since incorporation in 1977, law enforcement services in Rancho Cucamonga City have been provided through a contract with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

[73] Rancho Cucamonga is also home to the Foothill Communities San Bernardino County Courthouse, which is housed in a building adjacent to the Rancho Cucamonga Civic Center, in a government complex located at Haven Avenue and Civic Center Drive in the city.

[75] Rancho Cucamonga is served by Omnitrans bus service, train service from Metrolink's Rancho Cucamonga station on the San Bernardino Line, and nearby Ontario International Airport, one of four major Los Angeles-area passenger airports with multiple daily flights by most domestic carriers as well as a major shipping hub for companies like UPS and FedEx.

Rancho Cucamonga has been identified as the initial western end-point of the Brightline West High Speed Rail (HSR) project to connect Southern California with Las Vegas.

Further north, I-15 forms part of the northeastern border with neighboring Fontana before entering the Cajon Pass through the San Gabriel Mountains.

I-15 provides connectivity with the High Desert, Nevada, and points north for the Inland Empire and much of Southern California.

On November 29, 2011, the Inland Empire Utilities Agency installed the first wind turbine in Rancho Cucamonga.

[80] The name "Cucamonga" became well known to fans of Jack Benny's popular radio program, in which an announcer, voiced by Mel Blanc, would call out: "Train leaving on track five for Anaheim, Azusa and Cu-camonga!"

Grapevines still cover much of the parched land; but gone are the citrus groves, the fruit trees, the early pioneer settlers....

/ Still in fairly good shape along Grapeland's ghost roads are rabbit-proof stone walls around long-gone ciitrus orchards.

Scofield, Engineer and Builder is the legend proclaimed by this plaque in the Sierra Vista Reservoir, which proved a delusion to settlers.