The community was named for Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, established in 1798,[4] which is located near the geographic center of the neighborhood.

The neighborhood also includes the Heritage Park Village and museum, which was the center of town for the city of Oceanside for a time.

[3] The Lilac Fire broke out on December 7, 2017, severely damaging the 240-acre San Luis Rey Downs horse-training facility and killing 46 horses.

Although in other parts of the United States Native Americans were allowed to live autonomously on reservations, such an arrangement was denied to the Luiseño Indians because the settlers wanted to keep the land for farming and ranching.

Since 1996 the band hosts an annual inter-tribal powwow on the San Luis Rey Mission grounds, which is open to the public and presents Native American arts, crafts, food and dancing.