El Monte, California

El Monte: The End of the Santa Fe Trail

This is our claim to fame, indeed. We are the end of the Santa Fe trail. El Monte, translated "The Mountain" or "This Hill", is a Southern California town rich in history. However, our city is nowhere near a mountain and we are not on a hill at all. The Spaniards, when first discovering our so called "island", because it lies between two mighty rivers, said that El Monte variably meant "meadow", "marsh" or "wooded place".

There are still signs of botanical gardens and citrus groves throughout the city but gone is our reputation as the resting place for weary travelers. And obviously, we don’t provide hunting grounds for our native Indians who have long moved on.

El Monte has definitely moved into the twenty first century. Although, El Monte High School is still known as the Lions, a strong reminder of the majestic African lions who once roved in our community as part of the famous tourist attraction known as the "Gay’s Lion Farm." As a matter of fact, one of the lions on the farm, Jackie, is the wild cat on the MGM motion picture logo.

Browse through the town’s museum and you will find El Monte’s history all laid out in photographs. Across from the museum is probably El Monte’s grandest accomplishment—our two million dollar indoor, outdoor aquatic structure complete with a water slide. Swimming all year round is quite a treat here since our weather is quite warm for the most part.

What's more, after a good swim, one can visit the Valley Mall which is only a block or two away from the pools. Granted, our mall is as old as the city itself (which by the way is about 137 years), but we like it that way. You will, no doubt, appreciate the charm of this outdoor mall. We El Monteans voted to keep this shopping extravagance outdoors because, apparently, we like to stroll in the sun.

For good measure, Hollywood has come knocking on our doors a few times. The Rio Hondo Courthouse has been spotted in a few television shows as well as on the big screen. Film crews and actors with their huge trailers have always been a fun distraction for everyone.

When you do visit us here, between the San Gabriel and the Rio Hondo rivers, you could fly right into our neighborhood. Of course, you’d have to possess your own plane. Yes, we are proud owners of the only air port in the San Gabriel Valley. No big planes nor fighter jets or anything like that take off or land here, but we don’t complain. Nonetheless, we do get the occasional military chopper, and El Monte Airport puts on a great air show once a year. A few brave "El Monteans" take flying lessons at the local flight school. Maybe one day I’ll truly find the courage to do so.

What I love about our city is the wonderful sense of community. No doubt, we’ve had our problems, nonetheless, we’ve worked together with local law enforcement as well as our Parks and Recreation Center in efforts to make things better. Proudly we can say that hard core gangs have all but faded from our streets and have been replaced by youth programs.

On any given Saturday our parks (and we have many) are filled with the sights and sounds of little league play. One of the most popular parks, Lambert Park, has El Monte’s first indoor basketball gym where kids can play for free both in after school leagues or just a pick up game. I should also mention that on the outskirts of town we have our wilderness park. Throughout the summer kids go fishing there, and occasionally enjoy observing - or should I say chasing - the many families of ducks and geese.

Last, but certainly not the least, are the fine and interesting people who live here. We’ve worked hard to make our city a home. Many have lived here all their lives as did their parents before them. Spanish style ranches, with their horses and stables, have been handed down through the generations.

Even our diverse ethnic groups, who migrated over the years into our meadows, have melded well with one another. Each year we show off this diversity when a child who has the most interesting ethnic background is chosen to lead our children’s parade—everyone attends.

No wonder our restaurants are international with authentic Mexican food as well as Asian cuisine. The food will stimulate your taste buds. Furthermore, in case you didn’t know, we even have one of the first In & Out Burger joints—the best burger and fries in the world.

We’re quite a friendly crowd. Even the words on our welcome sign says so: "Welcome to Friendly El Monte, the End of the Santa Fe Trail."

Debby A

Submitted: Saturday 22nd May 2004, 5:16 PM

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