But then, what would we be called?

Our neighbor to the southeast, Riverside, is, as we all know, a Johnny come lately compared to our fair area. Juan Bandini was granted the Jurupa Rancho in 1838 and built a house by the Santa Ana River near the Hamner bridge.  Another house was built by Benjamin Wilson in today's Rubidoux sometime around 1843. The colony of Riverside didn't began seeing families move in until October 1870.  Riverside is situated on what was called "bench land" that was originally part of the Robidoux Rancho. Since it sat above the river it was difficult to irrigate, given the available knowledge of the day, and so it was considered worthless, except perhaps for cattle grazing. As a matter of fact, when Louis Robidoux's holdings were assessed in 1854 for tax purposes by San Bernardino County, he was only assessed for 3000 acres, since the other 3000 or so acres he owned on the other side of the river were  considered without any value for tax purposes. Wow! If the tax man thinks something is worthless, it must really be bad! Well, obviously someone thought it had potential since it was the site John North et al picked out and purchased for a new town.  When trying to decide on a name for this new place, they did float the name Jurupa, but Riverside won out. A little uninspired, perhaps, but much easier to spell! Now, over 100 years later, I guess those of us in Jurupa Valley have to admit that Riverside has done pretty well for itself!