Lucerne Valley, California

Lucerne Valley
—  census-designated place  —
Seal
Lucerne Valley Location within the state of California
Coordinates: 34°26′38″N 116°58′1″W
Country	United States
State	California
County	San Bernardino
Government
• Managed by	County of San Bernardino, 5th District (town has advisory capacity through their Municipal Advisory Council)
Area
• Total	105.590 sq mi (273.477 km2)
• Land	105.590 sq mi (273.477 km2)
• Water	0 sq mi (0 km2)  0%
Elevation	2,953 ft (900 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	5,811
• Density	55/sq mi (21.2/km2)
Time zone	Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP code	92356
Area code(s)	760
FIPS code
GNIS Feature IDs	272271; 2627937
Website	lucernevalley.net
U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lucerne Valley, California; U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lucerne Valley, California

Lucerne Valley is a census-designated place located in the Mojave Desert of western San Bernardino County, California. It lies east of the Victor Valley, whose population nexus includes Victorville, Apple Valley, and Hesperia. The population was 5,811 at the 2010 census.

Geography

Lucerne Valley is located 19 miles east of Apple Valley and 20 miles downhill north of Big Bear in the southern reaches of the Mojave Desert. It is surrounded by several mountain ranges which include the Granite mountain range, the Ord mountain range, and the San Bernardino mountain range. The heart of Lucerne Valley is located on the crossroads of State Route 247 (Old Woman Springs Road / Barstow Road) and State Route 18. Yucca Valley lies 45 miles east via Route 247/Old Woman Springs Road.

In San Bernardino County, Lucerne Valley's area is also identified as County Service Area 29.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 105.6 square miles (273.5 km²), all of it land.

History

Lucerne Valley was known to local Piute, Chemehuevi, and Serrano Tribes as "Chimney Rock", which is a California Historical Site of Interest; On February 1, 1867, Chimney Rock was the last major battle between California settlers and Native Americans. A monument marker is present on the western edge of Highway 18 at the western entrance to the town.

Lucerne Valley was settled and named in 1897 by James Goulding and his family, who found the desert valley to be an excellent place to raise alfalfa, also known as lucerne. The closest water source at the time was Cushenbury Springs (currently a cement plant in the southeast of the area) which used to feed out by alluvial drainage after winter from the San Bernardino Mountains.^{[citation needed]} The waterflow for the entire valley is fed this way through underground Artesian wells.

Today, Lucerne Valley is an agricultural/mining-based community, with Mitsubishi Cement, Specialty Minerals (formerly Pfizer), and OMYA (formerly Pluess-Staufer) as its major contractors digging into the North Face of the San Bernardino Mountain Range.^{[citation needed]} Lucerne Valley also has a state-sponsored water reclamation project, where treated wastewater from Big Bear and Holcomb Valley is transported via pipeline and used to irrigate alfalfa farms on the eastern edge of the valley.

One of the roads east of the town limit, Meridian Road, is the geographical "Median" of San Bernardino County dividing the area of the county into west and east.^{[citation needed]}

Recent development

While the town still has major obstacles preventing incorporation in the near future, the town is still viable for possible development. One earlier attempt called "Rancho Lucerne" began grading north of the High School location before embezzlement charges filed against the financier caused the project to shut down in 2001. Other projects are meeting with mixed reactions from residents and state/county officials, including Solar Power and Wind Turbine plants as well as Water Drilling proposals for the Los Angeles' centric Department of Water and Power, who recently cancelled an attempt to install a 2 mile wide water and power corridor in the Southern half of the town to transport distant resources into Los Angeles.

Demographics

The 2010 United States Census reported that Lucerne Valley had a population of 5,811. The population density was 55.0 people per square mile (21.2/km²). The racial makeup of Lucerne Valley was 4,507 (77.6%) White, 170 (2.9%) African American, 106 (1.8%) Native American, 90 (1.5%) Asian, 0 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 676 (11.6%) from other races, and 262 (4.5%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,447 persons (24.9%).

The Census reported that 5,780 people (99.5% of the population) lived in households, 31 (0.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.

There were 2,176 households, out of which 685 (31.5%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 954 (43.8%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 280 (12.9%) had a female householder with no husband present, 157 (7.2%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 146 (6.7%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 14 (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 632 households (29.0%) were made up of individuals and 255 (11.7%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66. There were 1,391 families (63.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.28.

The population was spread out with 1,424 people (24.5%) under the age of 18, 452 people (7.8%) aged 18 to 24, 1,214 people (20.9%) aged 25 to 44, 1,780 people (30.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 941 people (16.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.7 years. For every 100 females there were 106.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.4 males.

There were 2,949 housing units at an average density of 27.9 per square mile (10.8/km²), of which 1,454 (66.8%) were owner-occupied, and 722 (33.2%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 4.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 9.0%. 3,800 people (65.4% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,980 people (34.1%) lived in rental housing units.

Public safety

San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department operates a Substation inside of town limits. The San Bernardino County Fire Department provides a full-time staffed fire station. Cal Fire also staffs a fire station. The California Highway Patrol provides traffic enforcement and investigation.

Sites of interest

• Johnson Valley to the east of Lucerne Valley is a popular off-road vehicle recreation site known for its steep, rocky mountains and several dry lakes. Recent expansion plans for the Twentynine Palms Ground Combat center from the United States Marine Corps threatens to close the area permanently.

• Lucerne Valley's two dry lakes, Lucerne Dry Lake and Rabbit Springs Dry Lake are used for various activities.
  • The Dry Lakes are used frequently in filming projects, notably Rabbit Springs Dry Lake which was the scene for the attack sequence in Stagecoach filmed in 1938. Selena Gomez recently shot her music video A Year Without Rain in Rabbit Springs Dry Lake during Summer 2010.
  • Lucerne Dry Lake is also licensed for used by the County of San Bernardino as a testing ground for Firework displays planned by private companies due to the low amounts of vegetation within the lake bed that could spark from a misfire.^{[citation needed]}

• Chimney Rock, a registered landmark of the State of California, is located on the mountains north of Highway 18 at the Rabbit Springs Road junction as the site of the last battle between settlers and Indians in the Mojave Desert. An official landmark is at Highway 18 next to the welcome sign at the western border of town.

• The Box-S Ranch chimney ruin is located opposite of the junction of Highland Road and Highway 18 next to a drainage wash. It is the last remaining structure of the Box-S Ranch complex built by James Goulding.

• Amateur mining claims in the surrounding hills are present throughout the geographic region of Lucerne Valley where mainly quartz, topaz and jasper can be found.^{[citation needed]}

Notable people

• Jordan Romero, former resident who is currently the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest.
• Thora Birch, actress.
• Harry Abdul, father of Paula Abdul, who started a bottled water company called Crystal Hills in 1996 based in Lucerne Valley's foothills. (The company was sold to a private firm and closed in 2005.)

External links

• AAA Driving Directions/TripTik (Membership required)
• US Census population data (Enter the 92356 Zip Code)
• Chamber of Commerce
• Lucerne Valley Unified School District, Grades Pre, K-12.
• Lucerne Valley Leader, local newspaper operated by Freedom Communications. Lucerne Valley Leader shares staff with Victorville's regional newspaper, the Daily Press.
• LucerneValley.net (maintained by sisp.net)
• Points of Interest