Hesperia, CA news and local guide

In 1869 Max Stobel bought 35,000 acres from the federal land office for $40,000. Several attempts were made to subdivide and settle it, but the land was used mainly for farming, especially raisin grapes. Land developers of the Santa Fe Railroad laid out the town site in 1891, the year the railroad was completed, and named it for Hesperus, the Greek god of the West. They distributed pamphlets across the country promoting Hesperia as a future "Omaha of the West" with 100,000 people by 1900, but only about 1,000 moved there. The town grew slowly until U.S. Routes 66, 91 and 395 were completed in the 1940s and Interstate 15 in the late 1960s. In the early 1950s the developer M. Penn Phillips and his silent partner, the boxer Jack Dempsey, financed roads and subdivisions, sold lots on television and built the Hesperia Inn and a golf course. Sources Wikipedia: Hesperia, California