‘Inland Empire’: Where’s the Emperor?

The origins of the term “Inland Empire” are obscure. Longtime residents say they have heard the phrase for many years but do not know where it came from.

In a 1977 paper, Ronald O. Loveridge, a University of California, Riverside, political scientist, said the first frequent use of “Inland Empire” was in an advertising campaign by a Riverside bank in the 1950s.

Today the term is widely used. There is an Inland Empire Magazine published in Riverside, and both the Riverside and San Bernardino phone books list 30 to 40 businesses with “Inland Empire” in the title.

Not everyone in the region likes the label. “If there is an empire, then there must be an emperor, and I don’t care for that,” said one democratic-minded critic.

The rapidly growing cities at the western end of San Bernardino County--Chino, Fontana, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga--have tried to carve out a separate identity by calling themselves the “Inland Empire West” or the “West End” or the “The Interchange,” referring to the intersection of Interstate freeways 10 and 15 just east of Ontario. However, these efforts have made little headway.

Nor is there agreement about the geographical boundaries of the Inland Empire. Some would include all of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, while others would exclude the high desert and mountain regions of San Bernardino County and the Palm Springs-Coachella Valley portion of Riverside County.

For the most part, these articles will concentrate on the valley portions of western Riverside and San Bernardino counties, extending from the Los Angeles and Orange County lines on the west to Redlands and Moreno Valley on the east, and bounded by the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains on the north and by the Santa Ana Mountains on the south.