The lovely photo on the left is from the back deck of my friend Donna who I have known since we were three years old growing up together in Oklahoma. She lives in Oxnard, California, where temperatures range from 42 to 78 degrees and the average monthly rainfall is just slightly over one inch. She often has told me to come visit her because the weather is always perfect. And she’s correct; every time I have visited her, the weather has been beautiful. I have kayaked in the channel, attempted to learn how to use a stand-up paddleboard and attended a strawberry festival. My favorite trip was when we went on a boat tour of the nearby Channel Islands and saw two whales breaching or jumping up out of the water. Oxnard really is quite a lovely city. Let’s learn more about it.
According to Wikipedia, Oxnard is a city in Ventura County, California. On California's South Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 22nd most populous city in California.
Incorporated in 1903, Oxnard lies approximately 60 miles west of downtown Los Angeles and is part of the larger Greater Los Angeles area.
It is at the western edge of the fertile Oxnard Plain, adjacent to agricultural fields with strawberries, lima beans and other vegetable crops. Oxnard is also a major transportation hub in Southern California, with Amtrak, Union Pacific, Metrolink, Greyhound and Intercalifornias stopping there. It also has a small regional airport, Oxnard Airport.
Oxnard's population was 208,881 as of 2019. It is the most populous city in the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited by Chumash Native Americans. The first European to encounter the area was explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who claimed it for Spain in 1542. During the mission period, MissionSan Buenaventura, established in 1782, used the area for raising cattle. Ranching began to take hold among Californio settlers or Hispanic people native to the state of California, who lost their regional influence when California became a U.S. state in 1850. At about the same time, the area was settled by American farmers, who cultivated barley and lima beans.
Henry T. Oxnard, founder of Moorhead, Minnesota-based American Crystal Sugar Co. who operated a successful sugar beet factory with his three brothers — Benjamin, James and Robert — in Chino, California, was enticed to build a $2 million factory on the plain inland from Port Hueneme. Shortly after the 1897 beet campaign, a new town emerged, now commemorated on the National Register of Historic Places as the Henry T. Oxnard Historic District. Oxnard intended to name the settlement after the Greek word for "sugar," zachari, but frustrated by bureaucracy, named it after himself. Given the potential growth of the town of Oxnard, in the spring of 1898, a railroad station was built to service the plant, which attracted a population of Chinese, Japanese and Mexican laborers and enough commerce to merit the designation of a town. The Oxnard brothers, who never lived in their namesake city, sold both the Chino and the giant red-brick Oxnard factory in 1899 for nearly $4 million. The Oxnard factory with its landmark twin smokestacks operated from August 19, 1899 until October 26, 1959. Factory operations were interrupted during the Oxnard Strike of 1903.
Oxnard was incorporated as a California city on June 30, 1903, and the public library was opened in 1907. Prior to and during World War II, the naval bases of Point Mugu and Port Hueneme were established in the area to take advantage of the only major navigable port on California's coast between the Port of Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay, and the bases in turn encouraged the development of the defense-based aerospace and communications industries.
In the mid-20th century Oxnard grew and developed the areas outside the downtown with homes, industry, retail and a new harbor named Channel Islands Harbor. Martin V. “Bud” Smith (1916–2001) became an influential developer. Smith's first enterprise in 1941 was the Colonial House Restaurant which was demolished 1988 and then the Wagon Wheel Junction in 1947 which was demolished in 2011. He was also involved in the development of the high-rise towers at the Topa Financial Plaza, Channel Islands Harbor, Casa Sirena Resort, Esplanade Shopping Mall, Fisherman's Wharf, Carriage Square Shopping Center, Maritime Museum and many other hotel, restaurant and retail projects.
In June 2004, the Oxnard Police Department and the Ventura County Sheriff imposed a gang injunction over a 6.6-square-mile area of the central district of the city, in order to restrict gang activity. The injunction was upheld in the Ventura County Superior Court and made a permanent law in 2005. A similar injunction was imposed in September 2006 over a 4.26-square-mile area of the southside of the city. Prohibited activities include associating with other known gang members, witness intimidation, possessing firearms or using gang gestures. Since then, court decisions have made that add people to the civil orders, making them more stringent, stemming from lawsuits in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Judges determined that it was unconstitutional for people to be added to a gang injunction without a due-process hearing. As a result of budget cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oxnard police stopped maintaining and enforcing the injunction in 2020.
Geography
Oxnard is located on the Oxnard Plain, an area with fertile soil. With its beaches, dunes, wetlands, creeks and the Santa Clara River, the area contains a number of important biological communities. The Santa Clara River separates Oxnard and Ventura. Tributaries to this river include Sespe Creek, Piru Creek, and Castaic Creek. Native plant communities include: coastal sage scrub, California annual grassland and coastal dune scrub species; however, most native plants have been eliminated from within the city limits to make way for agriculture and urban and industrial development. Also native to the region is the endangered Ventura Marsh Milkvetch; the last self-sustaining population is in Oxnard in the center of an approved housing development.
Geology Oxnard is on a tectonically active plate, since most of coastal California is near the boundaries between the Pacific and North American plates. The San Andreas Fault, which demarcates this boundary, is about 40 miles away. One active fault that transverses Oxnard is the Oak Ridge Fault, which straddles the Santa Clara River Valley westward from the Santa Susana Mountains, crosses the Oxnard Plain through Oxnard and extends into the Santa Barbara Channel. The coastline is subject to inundation by a tsunami up to 23 feet in height. The fault has proven to be a significant contributor to seismic activity in the Oxnard region and beyond. The 6.7 Mw Northridge earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994 is believed to have occurred in the Santa Clarita extension of the Oak Ridge Fault. Landslides and ridge-top shattering resulting from the Northridge earthquake were observed above Moorpark, a city 19.6 miles east of Oxnard.
Wildlife and ecology The area contains a number of important biological communities. Native plant communities include coastal sage scrub, California annual grassland, and coastal dune scrub species; however, most native plants have been eliminated from within the city limits to make way for development. Also native to the region is the endangered Ventura marsh milkvetch, with the last self-sustaining population in Oxnard being at the center of a recently approved high-end housing development. The balance of wildlife in Oxnard is similar to that of most places in southern California, with small mammals being common in urbanized areas, like squirrels, raccoons and skunks. Coyotes prey on these smaller mammals. Small birds and mammals can be food for stray, feral and pet dogs and cats.
Environment Oxnard has more coastal power plants than any other city in California, with three fossil-fuel power plants providing energy for cities in both Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. The California Environmental Protection Agency has identified Oxnard as a city excessively burdened by multiple sources of pollution. Two of the power plants use ocean water cooling. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has categorized much of Oxnard in the top 10 percent of ZIP codes most negatively impacted by pollution in the state. In May 2015, the Oxnard City Council unanimously voted to extend the city moratorium on power plant construction. This moratorium extension occurred due to NRG/Southern California Edison's proposal, also referred to as the Puente Power Project, to construct a new fossil-fuel power plant. The next morning, a NRG representative stated their case to replace the old power generation plant at Mandalay beach with a new, hi-tech, much cleaner and more efficient plant. Pesticides are used in the agricultural fields surrounding Oxnard, as the area is one of the nation's leading strawberry producers, with agriculture being one of the top contributors to Oxnard's economy. Strawberries depend on large applications of fumigants containing pesticides. The Center for Health Journalism reported four ZIP codes with the highest pesticide use in the state clustered around Oxnard.
Rio Mesa High School, surrounded by agricultural fields of the Oxnard Plain, has been at the center of a Title VI Civil Rights Act complaint since 1999, covering three generations. Title VI prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency routinely awards California pesticide regulators millions of dollars in grants. The EPA is required to ensure the recipients of its funding to be in compliance with Title VI. The plaintiffs argue that California pesticide regulators violated Title VI, by approving permits for toxins that disproportionately impacted Latino schoolchildren, who attended schools adjacent to fields with the highest methyl bromide levels in the state.
Architecture The historical architectural styles of Oxnard ranch family homes are Victorian era, Italian style and Carpenter Gothic. In the Henry T. Oxnard Historic District, there are five Prairie School and eight Tudor Revival homes. The district includes Mission/Spanish Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, Colonial Revival and other architecture.
Ormond Beach Ormond Beach is a beach along the Oxnard coast. The beach — which stretches for two miles — adjoins the Ormond Wetlands, some farmland and power plant remains. It covers the area in between Points Hueneme and Mugu and is a well-known birding area. The beach historically contained marshes, salt flat, sloughs and lagoons, but surrounding agriculture and industry have drained, filled, and degraded the beach and wetlands. However, there is still a dune-transition zone-marsh system along much of the beach.
Economy The economy of Oxnard includes defense, international trade, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism. Oxnard is a manufacturing center in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Port of Hueneme is the only deep-harbor commercial port between Los Angeles and San Francisco and moves trade within the Pacific Rim economies. Companies utilizing the Port include Del Monte Foods, Chiquita, BMW, Land Rover and Jaguar. Other industries include finance, transportation, high-tech and energy — particularly petroleum. Two large active oil fields underlie the city and adjacent areas: the Oxnard Oil Field, east of the city along 5th Street, and the West Montalvo Oil Field along the coast to the west of town. Tenby Inc.'s Oxnard Refinery, on 5th Street east of Del Norte Avenue, processes oil from both fields.
Strawberries The Oxnard Plain is well known for its strawberries. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oxnard is California's largest strawberry producer, supplying about one-third of the state's annual strawberry volume. From the end of September through the end of October, strawberries are planted and harvesting occurs from mid-December through mid-July in Oxnard. The peak harvesting season in California runs from April through June, when up to 10 million pint baskets of strawberries are shipped daily. The state of California supplies over 85 percent of U.S. strawberries, with the U.S. supplying a quarter of total world production of strawberries.
Each year Oxnard hosts the California Strawberry Festival during the summer at College Park next to Oxnard College, featuring vendors as well as food items based on the fruit such as strawberry nachos, strawberry pizza, strawberry funnel cake, strawberry sundaes and strawberry champagne.
Cannabis In 2018, 80% of the voters approved a cannabis tax. The city council adopted a "go slow" approach upon the legalization of recreational cannabis in California. After an initial ban, businesses that focus on manufacturing, testing and distributing cannabis were allowed to apply for a permit to operate in July 2019. The council decided in September 2020 to allow 10 licenses to be issued. Companies must be licensed by the local agency and the state to grow, test or sell cannabis, and the city may authorize none or only some of these activities. Local governments may not prohibit adults who are in compliance with state laws from growing, using or transporting marijuana for personal use.
Arts and culture Oxnard cultural institutions include the Carnegie Art Museum, founded in 1907 as the Oxnard Public Library by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie; Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife, founded by the late Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler, Murphy Auto Museum and Channel Islands Maritime Museum. The Henry T. Oxnard Historic District is adjacent to the commercial downtown area and dates back to the founding of the city. Heritage Square in downtown is a collection of restored Victorian and Craftsman houses that were once owned by Oxnard's pioneer ranching families. Heritage Square is home to the Petit Playhouse and the Elite Theatre Co. The Oxnard Performing Arts and Convention Center is home to the New West Symphony. Oxnard also has the Oxnard Independent Film Festival and the annual Channel Islands Tall Ships Festival. The Herzog Winery is based in Oxnard along with other wine tasting rooms. During late July, the annual Salsa Festival is held in downtown Oxnard, featuring a salsa tasting tent, local bands, a large dance floor and local vendors, as well as many salsa-based food vendors.
Sports The Dallas Cowboys held their pre-season training camp at River Ridge Field in Oxnard in 2001, 2004–06, 2008–10 and 2012-16; the Cowboys trained at California Lutheran University in nearby Thousand Oaks in 1963–89. The New Orleans Saints trained in Oxnard in 2011. The Los Angeles Raiders trained at River Ridge in the 1980s and 90s. On February 4, 2016, the Los Angeles Rams, an NFL team, selected Oxnard to be the site of their official team activities and minicamp. On February 19, 2016, the city of Oxnard and the Rams reached a tentative agreement to host official team activities and minicamp at River Ridge Playing Fields, and on February 23, 2016, the Oxnard City Council voted unanimously 5-0 to allow the Los Angeles Rams to use the River Ridge Playing Fields facility from April 18 to June 17 and the locker room space from March 28 until June 24.
Port Hueneme
The Port of Hueneme is located south of Oxnard in the city of Port Hueneme and is jointly operated by the United States Navy and the Oxnard Harbor District. The port is the only deep water port between the Port of Long Beach and the Port of San Francisco as well as the only military deep water port between San Diego Bay and Puget Sound.
The Port of Hueneme is a shipping and receiving point for a wide variety of resources with destinations in the larger population centers of the Los Angeles Basin. Resources include automobiles, pineapples and bananas. Agricultural products such as onions, strawberries and flowers are shipped.
The United States Navy maintains a facility at Port Hueneme, in support of the naval air station at Point Mugu to the south, with which it comprises Naval Base Ventura County. Port Hueneme is the West Coast home of the naval construction force the "Seabees," as well as a link in the coastal radar system.
Notable people César Chávez Farm worker, political activist and union leader, Chávez lived in the Colonia area of Oxnard during his childhood. Several streets and schools in the Oxnard area and surrounding areas bear his name. A home he lived in is on Wright Road in the El Rio neighborhood, northwest of Highway 101 and Rose Avenue, where Chavez lived with his family in the late 1950s while working as an advocate for local farmworkers. Also, the office of the National Farm Workers Association — which later became United Farm Workers — is on Cooper Road, east of Garfield Avenue in the Colonia neighborhood. The Oxnard office opened in 1966, the year of a historic march from Delano to Sacramento.
Sonny Bono & Cher Record producers, singers and actors — who were famous as the Sonny & Cher pop duo and had a TV series — had a beach home in Oxnard Shores, Oxnard.
John Carradine
American actor John Carradine lived in Oxnard for many years.
John Holmes John Holmes, one of the most prolific male pornographic film actors in the 1970s with documented credits for at least 573 films, had his ashes scattered at sea off the coast of Oxnard in 1988.
Bob and Mike Bryan Identical twin brothers Robert Charles “Bob” Bryan and Michael Carl “Mike” Bryan are retired American professional doubles tennis players and the most successful duo of all time. They have won multiple Olympic medals, including the gold in 2012 and have won more professional games, matches, tournaments and Grand Slams than any other men's pairing. They held the World No. 1 doubles ranking jointly for 438, which is longer than anyone else in doubles history, and have also enjoyed that World No. 1 ranking together for a record 139 consecutive weeks. They graduated from Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard.
Corey Pavin Corey Allen Pavin (born November 16, 1959) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and currently on the PGA Tour Champions. He spent over 150 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 1986 and 1997 and achieved his highest world ranking of No. 2 in June 1996. He won the 1995 U.S. Open. Pavin graduated from Oxnard High School.
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