Ontario founded by the Chaffey brothers, is the most western town in San Bernardino County, and the lands extend to within four miles of the county line. It is thirty-eight miles east of Los Angeles, and twenty-four miles west of San Bernardino and Colton. Cucamonga is the nearest place on the east, Pomona on the west, and Chino on the south. At the town the elevation is 980 feet, with a gradual rise to 2,000 feet at the base of the mountains, six miles away. The slope is gradual from the Cucamonga Mountains, 6,000 feet high, and the month of San Antonio Canon, running back to “Old Baldy,” 10,000 feet high, toward the Santa Ana River, which runs about eight miles south of the colony. The tract is level and free from brush. The soil is a deep, rich loam. There are about 12,000 acres in the tract, which is seven miles long from north to south, and from one to three miles from east to west. Through the colony runs Euclid avenue, seven miles long and 200 feet wide, a double drive with a tram-car line in the middle, the divisions separated by lines of gum and pepper, cypress, Grevillea and palm trees. About the depot of the Southern Pacific Railway clusters the main town, consisting of some 250 acres in town lots, surrounded by villa lots of from one to two and one-half acres. At the Santa Fe station is North Ontario, containing some 200 acres in town lots. The rest of the land is laid out in ten-acre lots, with streets running east and west, and avenues north and south, so that each lot has a street frontage.
Additional Ontario Resources
Source: An Illustrated History of Southern California: embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of lower California.