El Cajon, California, United States

🇺🇸 El Cajon is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, 17 mi (27 km) east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was named for the box-like shape of the valley that surrounds the city, and the origin of the city's common nickname "the Box".

History During Spanish rule (1769–1821), the government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English word "ranch" is derived. Land grants were made to the Roman Catholic Church, which set up numerous missions throughout the region. In the early 19th century, mission padres' search for pastureland led them to the El Cajon Valley. Surrounding foothills served as a barrier to straying cattle and a watershed to gather the sparse rainfall. For years, the pasturelands of El Cajon supported the cattle herds of the mission and its native Indian converts.

Titles to plots of land were not granted to individuals until the Mexican era (1821–1846). The original intent of the 1834 secularization legislation was to have church property divided among the former mission Indians, but most of the grants were actually made to rich "Californios" of Spanish background who had long been casting envious eyes on the vast holdings of the Roman Catholic missions. In 1845, California Governor Pio Pico confiscated the lands of Mission San Diego de Alcala. He granted 11 square leagues (about 48,800 acres or 19,700 ha) of the El Cajon Valley to Dona Maria Antonio Estudillo, daughter of José Antonio Estudillo, alcalde of San Diego, to repay a $500 government obligation. The grant was originally called Rancho Santa Monica and encompassed present-day El Cajon, Bostonia, Santee, Lakeside, Flinn Springs, and the eastern part of La Mesa. It also contained the 28-acre (11 ha) Rancho Cañada de los Coches grant. Maria Estudillo was the wife of Don Miguel Pedrorena (1808–1850), a native of Madrid, Spain, who had come to California from Peru in 1838 to operate a trading business.

With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican–American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho El Cajon was filed by Thomas W. Sutherland, guardian of Pedrorena's heirs (his son, Miguel, and his three daughters, Victoria, Ysabel, and Elenain) with the Public Land Commission in 1852, confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the grant was patented in 1876. In 1868, Los Angeles land developer Isaac Lankershim bought the bulk of the Pedrorena's Rancho El Cajon holdings and employed Major Levi Chase, a former Union Army officer, as his agent. Chase received from Lankershim 7,624 acres (3,090 ha) known as the Chase Ranch. Lankershim hired Amaziah Lord Knox (1833–1918), a New Englander whom he had met in San Francisco, to manage Rancho El Cajon. In 1876, Knox established a hotel there to serve the growing number of people traveling between San Diego and Julian, where gold had been discovered in 1869. Room and board for a guest and horse cost $1 a night. The area became known as Knox's Corners and was later renamed. By 1878 there were 25 families living in the valley and a portion of the hotel lobby became the valley post office with Knox as the first postmaster.

El Cajon was incorporated as a city in 1912. For the first half of the 20th century, El Cajon was known for its grape, avocado, and citrus agriculture.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Frontier Town, Big Oak Ranch, was a tourist attraction, featuring a typical frontier-town theme park and a periodic simulated shootout. The park closed around 1980 and is being used for residential housing.

Cajon Speedway was a 70-acre race track (28 ha) that operated from 1961 to 2005, which was founded by Earle Brucker Jr. of the El Cajon Stock Car Racing Association. One of his sons, Steve Brucker, later took over ownership of the track. Though closing after the death of Steve Brucker, it is a historic museum featuring the original entrance sign with the slogan "The fastest 3/8-mile paved oval in the West".

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.4 square miles (37 km²), all land. It is bordered by San Diego and La Mesa on the west, Spring Valley on the south, Santee on the north, and unincorporated San Diego County on the east. It includes the neighborhoods of Fletcher Hills, Bostonia, and Rancho San Diego.

Economy The Parkway Plaza shopping mall is located in El Cajon.

Economy: Top employers According to the city's 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 Cajon Valley Union School District ; 2 GKN Aerospace Chem-tronics ; 3 Grossmont–Cuyamaca Community College District ; 4 City of El Cajon; 5 Grossmont Union High School District ; 6 Taylor Guitars ; 7 Country Hills Health Care & Rehabilitation Center; 8 University Mechanical and Engineering Contractors ; 9 The Home Depot ; 10 Walmart .

Schools Cajon Valley Union School District operates public elementary and middle schools. Grossmont Union High School District operates public high schools.

Public elementary schools • Anza Elementary • Avocado Elementary • Blossom Valley Elementary • Bostonia Elementary • Chase Avenue Elementary • Crest Elementary • Dehesa School • Fletcher Hills Elementary • Flying Hills Elementary • Fuerte Elementary • Jamacha Elementary • Johnson Elementary • Lexington Elementary • Madison Elementary • Magnolia Elementary • Meridian Elementary • Naranca Elementary • Rancho San Diego Elementary • Rios Elementary • Vista Grande Elementary • W.D. Hall Elementary

Public middle schools • Cajon Valley Middle School • Greenfield Middle School • Hillsdale Middle School • Los Coches Creek Middle School • Montgomery Middle School

Public high schools • Chaparral High School • Christian High School • El Cajon Valley High School • Granite Hills High School • Grossmont High School • Grossmont Middle College High School • IDEA Center High School • Valhalla High School.

Private schools • Foothills Christian Schools (Preschool, middle school, and high school campuses)

Colleges • Advanced Training • Cuyamaca College • Grossmont College • San Diego Christian College • Seminary of Mar Abba the Great of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Annual events On a Saturday in May, the city celebrates its diversity with a free family-friendly event called "America on Main Street". The festival replaces a previous city-sponsored event called the International Friendship Festival, which ran from 1991 to 2003. Both festivals highlight the city's identity as a "mini-United Nations", with 30% of its population being immigrants from Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Turkey, and other countries.

El Cajon's annual Mother Goose Parade has been held on the Sunday before Thanksgiving every year since 1946. Organizers claim it is the largest parade in San Diego County. It features more than 100 entries, including "motorized floats, marching bands and drill units, equestrians, clowns, performing artists, giant helium balloons, specialty vehicles, and Santa Claus".

Visitor attractions Visitor attractions in and around El Cajon include the Water Conservation Garden and Butterfly Garden at Cuyamaca College, Sycuan Casino, Summers Past Farms, and the Parkway Plaza Mall.

Transport: Air • Gillespie Field