Lancaster, California

AT A GLANCE LANCASTER, CALIFORNIA WHAT: A city of 170,000 WHERE: In the Antelope Valley in Southern California WEBSITE: www.cityoflancasterca.org L ancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California, just 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It is separated from the Los Angeles Basin by the San Gabriel Mountains to the south and from Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley by the Tehachapi Mountains to the north. The area where Lancaster is now located was originally home to the Paiute Indians. Lancaster’s origins as a settlement start with the Southern Pacific Railroad, which is believed to first use the name Lancaster, where a station house, locomotive watering facilities, and section gang housing were built when the railroad laid track through the town’s future location. In 1876, the Southern Pacific completed the line through the Antelope Valley, linking San Francisco and Los Angeles. Lancaster, C A L I F O R N I A A CHOICE LOCATION pictured at Jack Nothrop Elementary Photo Credit: City of Lancaster