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Artesia, California

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Artesia, California

Artesia (Spanish for "artesian aquifer") is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, California. Artesia was incorporated on May 29, 1959, and is one of Los Angeles County's Gateway Cities. The city has a 2020 census population of 16,395. Artesia is surrounded on the west, south, and east sides by Cerritos, with Norwalk to the north. Artesia is the home of the East West Ice Palace, an ice rink which is co-owned by Michelle Kwan. It was also the childhood home of former First Lady Pat Nixon, who lived there from 1914 to 1931, though the property on which she grew up is now part of neighboring Cerritos.

The village of Artesia was established upon the completion of the Artesia School District on May 3, 1875. It was named for the many flowing artesian wells in the area, which made the village ideal for farming and agriculture.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Dutch and Portuguese farmers developed Artesia into one of the most important dairy districts in Southern California. After World War II, as with many other cities in the region, Artesia was pressured by developers to build residential tracts. The city of Dairy Valley was incorporated in 1956, and later became the city of Cerritos. As the demand for housing continued, dairymen moved their operations further east into Chino and north into the Central Valley. Artesia finally incorporated on May 29, 1959.

Before Artesia was incorporated, some rural areas, such as Hawaiian Gardens, had Artesia as their recommended address for mapping and postage purposes.

In 1993, the Artesia Historical Society was formed, with the mission of preserving and protecting the archives and historic sites of the city. In 2002, the Historical Society salvaged and restored one of the last remaining Spanish-styled homes in the city into a historical civic museum open to the public.

One of the more familiar landmarks in the city is the Artesia water tower. Not much is known about its active past or when it was constructed. The City of Artesia is currently trying to have the tower declared as a Historical Landmark and is asking its citizens for historical information and photos of the tower.

There are a large number of Indian-owned stores and restaurants along Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia. Despite this concentration of Indian-owned businesses, Asian Indians made up only 7.9% of the population of Artesia in the 2010 Census.

Proposals have often been made to designate a portion of the city as "Little India" (along the lines of Little Saigon in nearby Westminster and Garden Grove). Another proposal has been for a "Little India" sign at the Pioneer Boulevard exit off of the Artesia Freeway. Opposition, primarily from other ethnicities in the city, has so far balked such plans.

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