Ontario

A bit of history

George and William Chaffey founded Ontario in 1881 as a planned "Model Colony" irrigation settlement named for their native Ontario, Canada, and the city incorporated on December 10, 1891. Citrus, oranges and lemons, became the backbone of the local economy, and the Graber Olive House, opened in 1894, still operates today as the oldest olive packer in the United States. A municipal airfield established in 1929 grew over the following decades into Ontario International Airport, now a major air-cargo hub and a symbol of the region's shift from agriculture to logistics and manufacturing.