Corona

About Corona

Corona earned the nickname Circle City from Grand Boulevard, a perfectly round road about 2.75 miles long that still rings its oldest neighborhoods. Founded in 1886 as South Riverside during the citrus boom and renamed when it incorporated in 1896, it was once called the Lemon Capital of the World. Today about 157,000 people live here, at the foot of the Santa Ana Mountains in western Riverside County.

The circle hosted international automobile road races in 1913, 1914 and 1916, and the Mission Revival school building of 1923 inside it now serves as the Historic Civic Center. The lemon story lives on at Corona Heritage Park, on the grounds of the old Foothill Lemon Company ranch. Fender, the guitar maker, has its global headquarters in the city.

Above the foothills, the Skyline Drive Trail climbs into Cleveland National Forest for wide views across the Inland Empire. South along I-15 the Temescal Valley holds Glen Ivy Hot Springs, Tom's Farms, Corona Lake and the 1819 Serrano Tanning Vats, all easy half-day outings from town.