Rialto

About Rialto

Rialto is a city in San Bernardino County in the Inland Empire of Southern California, about 55 miles east of downtown Los Angeles between Fontana and San Bernardino. It began in the late 1880s as a stop on the Santa Fe railroad, surrounded by citrus groves and vineyards, and incorporated as a city in 1911. For decades the orange groves and packing houses defined the town, and historic Route 66 brought travelers through along Foothill Boulevard.

Today Rialto is a growing community of more than 100,000 people, with neighborhoods spread across the valley floor below the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. The old downtown around Riverside Avenue keeps some of its early buildings, and the restored railroad depot is still served by Metrolink trains on the San Bernardino Line to Los Angeles. The city has also become a major logistics center, with large warehouses near the 10 and 210 freeways.

For visitors, the best-known sight is the Wigwam Motel on Route 66, where guests still sleep in concrete teepees built in 1949. The Rialto Historical Society keeps a small museum about citrus-era life, and parks such as Frisbie Park offer shady lawns and sports fields. With Mexican restaurants, taco shops and family-run diners along Foothill Boulevard and Riverside Avenue, Rialto is an easy stop on a Route 66 drive or a base for trips to the mountains around Lytle Creek and Big Bear.