It is estimated that the Cahuilla aboriginal tribes inhabited an area including what is today the Anza Valley more than two thousand years ago and encountered Europeans only as late as 1774 when a Spanish expedition in search of an overland route from Sonora to Alta California made its way from Tubac, Sonora through the valley to Monterey, Alta California. That expedition was lead by Juan Bautista de Anza, in whose honour the valley was renamed from Cahuilla Valley to Anza Valley on 16 September 1926.

Up until about 1580 the area was in the proximity of a larger body of inland water known as Lake Cahuilla, but that inland lake larger than the current Salton Sea, which occupies a portion of its former location, evaporated, thus increasing the desert character of the Anza Valley. These climatic and cultural factors can be seen as having exercised a unique influence on the early European settlers of the Anza Valley. During the 19th century settlement included ranchers, a limited number of miners and honey producers. The mid-to-late 19th century witnessed moderate population and above average economic prosperity for this isolated community.

Hide this content.