| City of El Monte | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — City — | |||
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| Motto: End of the Santa Fe Trail | |||
| Location of El Monte in the County of Los Angeles | |||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| State | California | ||
| County | Los Angeles | ||
| Incorporated | November 18, 1912 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | Council-Manager | ||
| • Mayor | Andre Quintero | ||
| • City Treasurer | Henry Velasco[1] | ||
| Area[2] | |||
| • Total | 9.648 sq mi (24.988 km2) | ||
| • Land | 9.562 sq mi (24.766 km2) | ||
| • Water | 0.086 sq mi (0.222 km2) 0.89% | ||
| Elevation | 299 ft (91 m) | ||
| Population (2010) | |||
| • Total | 113,475 | ||
| • Rank | 10th in Los Angeles County 51st in California 228th in the United States |
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| • Density | 11,761.6/sq mi (4,541.2/km2) | ||
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC−7) | ||
| ZIP codes | 91731-91735 | ||
| Area code(s) | 626 | ||
| FIPS code | 06-22230 | ||
| GNIS feature ID | 1652702 | ||
| Website | www.ci.el-monte.ca.us | ||
El Monte /ɛl ˈmɒntiː/ is a residential, industrial, and commercial city [3] in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte," and historically is known as "The End of the Santa Fe Trail." As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 113,475, down from 115,965 at the 2000 census. As of 2010, El Monte is the 228th largest city in the United States, and is the 51st largest city in California. El Monte Lies in the San Gabriel Valley region East of the city of Los Angeles.
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El Monte was literally an oasis or island in the middle of the arid San Gabriel Valley. Sitting between the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo Rivers. Residents claim that anything could be grown here due to the two rivers. Between 1770 and 1830, Spanish soldiers and missionaries often stopped here for respite. They called the area, 'El Monte,' which in Spanish means 'meadow or marsh' or 'the wooded place. Most people assume the name refers to a mountain, but the word is an archaic Spanish translation of that era, there were no mountains in the valley. The explorers had found this oasis of rich, low altitude land, blanketed with thick growths of wispy willows, alders, and cattails, located between the two rivers. They also found wild grapevines and watercress. The "Island" is approximately 7 miles long and 4 miles wide.[4] When the State Legislature organized California into more manageable designated townships in the 1850s, they called it the El Monte Township. In a short time the name returned to the original El Monte.[5]
In earlier days, El Monte was a stopping place for the people going to the gold fields in the North, near Sacramento. The first settlers with their families were Nicholas Schmidt, Ira W. Thompson, G and F. Cuddeback, J. Corbin and J Sheldon. Settlement began in 1849, though Spanish missionaries and soldiers passed through the area as early as the 1770s. The Old Spanish Trail, originating in Santa Fe became a continuation of the well-known Santa Fe Trail, that began in 1821, when the nation’s first major international commercial highway was estalihed stretching from Kansas City, Missouri to Santa Fe.[6] In the 1850s the village (renamed Lexington by American settlers) was the crossroad between Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Pedro. In the early days, it had a reputation as a rough town where men often settled disputes with knives and guns in its gambling saloons. Defense against Indian raids and the crimes of bandit gangs like that of Juan Flores and Pancho Daniel led to the formation of a local militia company called the Monte Rangers in February 1854.[7] After the Monte Rangers disbanded, justice for Los Angeles County, in the form of a lynching, was often provided by the local vigilantes called the "El Monte Boys".
The first permanent residents arrived in El Monte around 1849-1850 mostly from Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, during a time when thousands migrated to California in search of gold. Though few found any gold, these migrants ventured upon the bounty of fruitful, rich land along the San Gabriel River and began to build homesteads there. The farmers were very pleased at the increasing success of El Monte’s agricultural community, and it steadily grew over the years.[6] In 1858, it became a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail. By 1861 El Monte had become a sizeable settlement and during the American Civil War was considered a stronghold of sympathetic secessionists. A. J. King an Undersheriff of Los Angeles County (and former member of the earlier "Monte Rangers" or "Monte Boys") with other influential men in El Monte, formed a secessionist militia company, like the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles, called the Monte Mounted Rifles on March 23, 1861. However the attempt failed when following the battle of Fort Sumter, A. J. King marched through the streets with a portrait of the Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard and was arrested by a U.S. Marshal. State arms sent from Governor John G. Downey for the unit were held up by Union officers at the port of San Pedro. Union troops established New Camp Carleton near the town in March 1862 to suppress any rebellion, it was shut down three years later at the end of the war.[8] El Monte was the first town in Southern California to be founded by American citizens of European descent. Southern Pacific built a railroad depot in town in 1873, stimulating the growth of local agriculture.[9][10] El Monte was incorporated as a municipality in 1912. During the 1930s, the city became a vital site for the New Deal's federal Subsistence Homestead project, a Resettlement Administration program that helped grant single-family ranch houses to qualifying applicants. Famous photographer Dorothea Lange took many pictures of the houses for her work for the Farm Security Administration.
Formerly home to many white settlers from the 1930s Dust Bowl Migration, the city has evolved into a majority Hispanic community. Representing the historical significance of the Santa Fe Trail, El Monte built the Santa Fe Trail Historical Park in 1989, at Valley Blvd and Santa Anita Ave.[6] The trail remained America’s greatest route for several decades thereafter.[11] The El Monte Historical Museum [12] at 3150 Tyler Avenue, is considered to be one of the best community museums in the state of California.[4]
El Monte is credited with being the birth place of TV variety shows. Hometown Jamboree, a KTLA-TV Los Angeles-based show, was actually produced at the American Legion Stadium in El Monte, California in the 1950s.[13] The Saturday night stage show was hosted and produced by Cliffie Stone, who helped popularize country music in California.[14]
In the 1950s, as the unstable racial climate and the hostility toward rock & roll started to merge, rock & roll shows were forced from the City of Los Angeles by police pressure. The El Monte Legion Stadium, outside the city limits, became the site of a series for rock and roll concerts by Johnny Otis and other performers.[15] (Johnny Otis along with Alan Freed and Dick Clark were the major powers in the growing rock and roll industry.) During the fifties, teenagers from all over Southern California flocked to El Monte Legion Stadium every Friday and Saturday night to see their favorite performers. Famous singers who performed there include: the Ritchie Valens, Rosie & The Originals, Brenton Wood, Earth Wind & Fire, The Grateful Dead,[16] Dick Dale and his Del-Tones and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Disc jockeys Art Laboe and Huggy Boy enhanced the stadium's popularity with their highly publicized Friday Night Dances with many popular record artists of the late 1950s and 1960s. "El Monte Legion Stadium", as it was often called, was the "Happening" place to be for the teenagers of that era.[17] In a closed-circuit telecast, The Beatles and the Beach Boys were seen there on March 14, 1964.[18]
El Monte is known for the long-time rock & roll hit "Memories of El Monte",[19] written by Frank Zappa and originally recorded by The Penguins, one of the local Doo-wop groups from the 1950s that became famous nationwide. The song is in remembrance of The El Monte Legion Stadium and can be heard on many albums including Art Laboe's Memories of El Monte. Although the stadium closed their doors nearly 50 years ago, the music continues to live on.[20] El Monte was the birthplace of singer–guitarist Mary Ford, of Les Paul & Mary Ford fame. John Larkin, known as (Scatman John), is also a native. El Monte was home to musicians Gregg Myers and Joe McDonald, who performed in the 1960s with Country Joe & the Fish. Cheech Marin of Cheech and Chong fame was an El Monte denizen.
A popular attraction from 1925 to 1942 was Gay's Lion Farm. Two European retired circus stars, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gay, operated this tourist attraction, which has been called “the Disneyland of the 1920s and 1930s” by historian Jack Barton,[4] and many others of that era.. The Gays raised wild animals for use in the motion picture industry and housed over 200 African lions. Many of the lions starred in films during the 1920s and 1930s, including the Tarzan films starring Elmo Lincoln and Johnny Weismuller. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion logo was made with "Slats" (1924–1927), and his lookalike successor "Jackie". In 1925, El Monte Union High School adopted “The Lions” name for its teams, and the Gays provided a lion mascot for big games. The famous live lion farm was closed temporarily due to wartime meat shortages. It never reopened, but a life-sized memorial statue can be seen next to I-10 on the SE corner of Valley Boulevard and Peck Road. The original lion statue, commissioned for the Farm, stands in front of nearby El Monte High School.
Horse racing's most famous jockey, Willie Shoemaker, was a resident and attended El Monte High School, until he dropped out to work in the nearby stables.[21] El Monte was also briefly the home to author James Ellroy until his mother Geneva was murdered there in 1958.[22] Former baseball player Fred Lynn was a resident of El Monte. Actor-filmmaker Timothy Carey filmed much of his underground feature The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) in El Monte. Modern authors Salvador Plascencia, 33, and Michael Jaime-Becerra, 36, both grew up in El Monte and each references El Monte in his novels.[23] Mr. Ed, the Palomino of the classic 60s television show, was foaled in 1949 in El Monte and named "Bamboo Harvester".[24] Artist collective "mindfunk" work live art studio is based in El Monte. Since 2000 "mindfunk" has been producing underground urban multimedia artwork. [1]
El Monte is located at (34.073276, -118.027491).[25] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.6 square miles (25 km2), of which, 9.6 square miles (25 km2) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) of it (0.89%) is water.
El Monte has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa).
| Climate data for El Monte | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °F (°C) | 70 (21) |
71 (22) |
72 (22) |
77 (25) |
79 (26) |
84 (29) |
89 (32) |
90 (32) |
88 (31) |
83 (28) |
76 (24) |
71 (22) |
79 (26) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 43 (6) |
45 (7) |
47 (8) |
50 (10) |
55 (13) |
59 (15) |
62 (17) |
63 (17) |
61 (16) |
55 (13) |
46 (8) |
39 (4) |
52 (11) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 4.07 (103.4) |
4.66 (118.4) |
3.76 (95.5) |
1.01 (25.7) |
.41 (10.4) |
.16 (4.1) |
.03 (0.8) |
.10 (3) |
.44 (11.2) |
.57 (14.5) |
1.29 (32.8) |
2.06 (52.3) |
18.56 (471.4) |
| Source: [26] | |||||||||||||
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1920 | 1,283 |
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| 1930 | 3,479 | 171.2% | |
| 1940 | 4,746 | 36.4% | |
| 1950 | 8,073 | 70.1% | |
| 1960 | 13,163 | 63.0% | |
| 1970 | 69,837 | 430.6% | |
| 1980 | 79,494 | 13.8% | |
| 1990 | 106,209 | 33.6% | |
| 2000 | 115,965 | 9.2% | |
| 2010 | 113,475 | −2.1% | |
| source:[27] | |||
The population has increased by more than 40% since the 1970s, homes replacing the walnut groves the city was known for.[3]
The 2010 United States Census[28] reported that El Monte had a population of 113,475. The population density was 11,761.6 people per square mile (4,541.2/km²). The racial makeup of El Monte was 44,058 (38.8%) White, 870 (0.8%) African American, 1,083 (1.0%) Native American, 28,503 (25.1%) Asian (13.5% Chinese, 7.4% Vietnamese, 1.2% Filipino, 0.4% Cambodian, 0.2% Burmese, 0.2% Japanese, 0.2% Korean, 0.2% Indian, 0.2% Thai), 131 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 35,205 (31.0%) from other races, and 3,625 (3.2%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 78,317 persons (69.0%); 60.9% of El Monte is Mexican, 2.3% Salvadoran, 1.2% Guatemalan, 0.4% Nicaraguan, 0.3% Honduran, 0.3% Cuban, 0.2% Puerto Rican, and 0.2% Peruvian.
The Census reported that 112,395 people (99.0% of the population) lived in households, 317 (0.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 763 (0.7%) were institutionalized.
There were 27,814 households, out of which 14,557 (52.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 15,087 (54.2%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 5,298 (19.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 2,962 (10.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,061 (7.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 161 (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,130 households (11.3%) were made up of individuals and 1,539 (5.5%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.04. There were 23,347 families (83.9% of all households); the average family size was 4.23.
The population was spread out with 32,234 people (28.4%) under the age of 18, 12,814 people (11.3%) aged 18 to 24, 33,263 people (29.3%) aged 25 to 44, 24,567 people (21.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 10,597 people (9.3%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31.6 years. For every 100 females there were 100.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.4 males.
There were 29,069 housing units at an average density of 3,013.0 per square mile (1,163.3/km²), of which 11,740 (42.2%) were owner-occupied, and 16,074 (57.8%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.6%. 46,802 people (41.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 65,593 people (57.8%) lived in rental housing units.
As of the census[29] of 2000, there were 115,965 people, 27,034 households, and 23,005 families residing in the city. The population density was 12,139.5 people per square mile (4,688.4/km²). There were 27,758 housing units at an average density of 2,905.8 per square mile (1,122.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 72.39% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race, 35.67% White, 0.77% Black or African American, 1.38% Native American, 18.51% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 39.27% from other races, and 4.29% from two or more races.
There were 27,034 households out of which 53.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.0% were married couples living together, 18.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 14.9% were non-families. 10.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.24 and the average family size was 4.43.
In the city the population were 34.1% under the age of 18, 12.1% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 15.4% from 45 to 64, and 6.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27 years. For every 100 females there were 102.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $32,439, and the median income for a family was $32,402. Males had a median income of $21,789 versus $19,818 for females. The per capita income for the city was $10,316. About 22.5% of families and 26.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.9% of those under age 18 and 13.3% of those age 65 or over.
In the state legislature El Monte is located in the 24th Senate District, represented by Democrat Gloria Romero, and in the 49th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Mike Eng. Federally, El Monte is located in California's 32nd congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of D +17[30] and is represented by Democrat Judy Chu.
The El Monte City Council has five members, with Andre Quintero as City Mayor, Patricia Wallach as Mayor Pro Tem, and Juventino "J" Gomez, Emily Ishigaki, and Norma Macias as City Council members.[31]
According to the City's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[32] the top employers in the city are:
| # | Employer | # of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wells Fargo | 1,800 |
| 2 | El Monte Union High School District | 1,742 |
| 3 | Mountain View Elementary School District | 1,007 |
| 4 | Vons | 736 |
| 5 | Longo Toyota-Lexus | 600 |
| 6 | El Monte City of, | 526 |
| 7 | M.C. Gill Corporation | 250 |
| 8 | Driftwood Dairy | 250 |
| 9 | Cathay Bank | 250 |
| 10 | McConnell Cabinets | 57 |
The El Monte Union High School District consists of the following schools:
The El Monte City School District contains 17 elementary schools:[33] one serving grades K-4, one serving grades K-5, ten serving grades K-6, and six serving grades K-8. The district also administers four Head Start (preschool) sites, which are located at the elementary schools.
The Mountain View School District[42] is a K-8 school district comprising ten elementary schools, one intermediate school, one middle school, an alternative education program for students in grades 5-8, and a Children’s Center and Head Start/ State Preschool program. The district has an enrollment of 8,600 students.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Monrovia Health Center in Monrovia, serving El Monte.[43] The El Monte Comprehensive Health and Mammography Center is located on Ramona Blvd. in El Monte. It offers medical and dental services for low-income individuals, but is not an emergency center.[44]
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