City of Fountain Valley

The City of Fountain Valley is a suburban city in Orange County with an emphasis on creating an outstanding community for its residents. The city offers recreational activities and plenty of shopping and dining, as well as exciting annual events like Summerfest, Concerts and Movies in the Park, Food Truck Frenzy, and the Senior Expo. The Fountain Valley profile includes city history and information for residential services, shopping, dining, and points of interest throughout the city.

City of Fountain Valley, California
About Fountain Valley	History	Things to Do
City Statistics	Information & Services	Schools & Libraries

About Fountain Valley

Fountain Valley is located in Orange County, approximately three miles from the coast and 35 miles from Los Angeles. The city is bordered by Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, and Westminster. Fountain Valley is a short drive away from major Orange County beaches and attractions like Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Angel Stadium.

Mile Square Regional Park is one of Fountain Valley’s gems. The 607 acre park features two fishing lakes, three golf courses, multiple sports fields, an archery range, a nature area, and a concession area for renting paddle boats and bicycles. The paved park trails are popular for fitness enthusiasts looking for a place to jog, and families take to the trails to stroll with the kids. Several annual events are held here every year including Summerfest and day camps for Cub Scouts and other community groups.

Fountain Valley is a business-friendly community with more than 5,000 businesses within the city limits. There are more than 30 strip-mall style shopping centers, with Fountain Valley Town Center, Fountain Valley Plaza, FV Promenade, and Costco Plaza being the locations with the largest number of businesses in a single center and most are anchored by a large grocery store. There is an abundance of dining options at these locations and around the city, including the opportunity to enjoy food from varying cultures, especially Vietnamese cuisine. For more traditional shopping malls and open air shopping centers, residents will need to travel to surrounding cities.

While many residents commute from Fountain Valley to other cities for work, there are several businesses that are major employers in the area including Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, Hyundai Motor America, Inc., Memorial Health Services, Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, and Kingston Technology Company.

Fountain Valley History

In the 1800s, the land in Fountain Valley was full of swampy areas, and early residents referred to the town as “Gospel Swamp.” Settlers constructed drainage canals to create usable land where they grew sugar beets, barley, beans, and wheat, and cattle grazed the land that was not being used for crops. In the 1930s, large land owners began selling parcels of land and the agricultural focus shifted to many varieties of truck crops like strawberries, cabbage, onions, asparagus, corn, squash, beans, lettuce, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, parsley, and peas. There are still a few remaining agricultural areas producing crops in Fountain Valley today, including Smith Farms, primarily producing strawberries, melons, tomatoes, citrus, and a variety of vegetables. The land is still owned by the Callens family who came to Fountain Valley in 1910 as immigrants from Western Europe. They purchased 300 acres of land and turned it into a successful lima bean farm that operated until 1995.

Fountain Valley was the 21st city in Orange County, incorporated in 1957. In the 1960s, the master-planned community began to pick up the pace with building tracts of housing and the population of Fountain Valley grew significantly. Vietnamese refugees began settling into the city in the late 1970s after the 1975 Fall of Saigon, forming a large community of Asian Americans.

Red Cars serviced the Fountain Valley area from 1909 through 1922 on the Santa Ana/Huntington Beach Pacific Electric Spur Line that ran along Bushard Street. The lines were torn out to make way for new roads and developments in 1930.

Fountain Valley Statistics

Size: Approximately 9 Square Miles
Population: 57,047 (2020)

Things to Do in Fountain Valley

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Schools & Libraries

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Fountain Valley Library

Best Regional Parks In OC	OC Bucket List: Fountain Valley
Fairs & Festivals In Orange County	Orange County Golf Courses
Family Attractions In OC	Shopping Centers In Orange County

Heidi Deal

Heidi Deal is the author of the Newcomers Handbook to Living In Los Angeles & Orange County, and a children’s book author specializing in history and human rights. When she's not writing you can find her solo hiking and going on new adventures with her kids and pup.