The Story of Moreno Valley
Moreno Valley feels like a place caught between wide-open nature and constant movement. Drive through it on a clear day and you'll notice the sky first — big, stretching, endless. Then the neighborhoods, the hills, the desert light shifting over Box Springs Mountain.
Before houses lined the valley, this was open land shaped by wind and sky. Its modern story truly began in 1918 with March Field — the air base that would anchor the region for decades. Families moved here because someone worked on the base. Someone served. Someone found community in a place that felt both remote and full of promise.
By the 1980s, Moreno Valley was ready to become a city of its own. Incorporating in 1984, it quickly grew into one of the Inland Empire's major suburban communities — a place where new residents arrived every year, chasing affordable homes, open space, and a sense of new beginnings.
