Corona, CA news and local guide

After the founding of Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776 and Mission San Luis Rey in 1798, villagers were brought to the missions to be baptized and to work. The San Antonio de Pala outpost was built in 1816, and two years later Leandro Serrano, the Temescal Valley's first European resident, was allowed to graze cattle there. His first order was to kill the local bears and mountain lions. After Mexico secularized the missions in 1833, the land passed to large ranchos, and in 1848 Governor Pio Pico granted the area including present Corona to Bernardo Yorba. Corona was founded in 1886, at the height of the Southern California citrus boom, by the South Riverside Land and Water Company, at the upper end of the Santa Ana River Canyon, a major pass through the Santa Ana Mountains. Its name is Spanish for "crown," after Grand Boulevard, a circle 2.75 miles around that encloses the grid of streets designed by the Anaheim engineer Hiram Clay Kellogg and gives the city its nickname, the Circle City. Corona was once the Lemon Capital of the World, and a museum tells the story of its lemon industry. Sources Wikipedia: Corona, California