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Nathan Gonzalez on the Term "Inland Empire"

March 24, 2025 by
Nathan Gonzalez on the Term "Inland Empire"
Rotary Redlands

Nathan Gonzales again impressed us with his wealth of

knowledge of the history of our region. Nathan addressed

the burning question of where we got the nickname “Inland

Empire”. The first use of the term dated back to 1902 when

the city of San Pedro was labeled the “gateway to the inland

empire”. The same term was also used in the San Joaquin

Valley and seemed to take hold for our region in 1914. Due to

all of the citrus in the region, at the time, the region was also

appropriately labeled the “orange empire”. Nathan provided

many other interesting facts about our region including how we

were the favorite winter vacation spot before Palm Springs got

air conditioning. He finished with a photo of the first Baker’s

fast food restaurant located near Redlands High School, now

occupied by Starbucks. Larry Burgess told the club how

Nathan took on Starbucks and was able to preserve the historic

architecture for the building making it one of the more unique

Starbucks locations.

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