Editing Alpine, California (section)

==History==
Before its modern settlement, the area was part of the home of the [[Kumeyaay]] Indians, whose ancestors had lived here for possibly as long as 12,000 years.

The community's name was suggested by a resident in the 1880s who said that the environment reminded her of her native country of [[Switzerland]].<ref name="BrightGudde1998">{{cite book|author1=William Bright|author2=Erwin Gustav Gudde|title=1500 California place names: their origin and meaning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CET4QodMZysC|access-date=January 20, 2012|date= November 30, 1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21271-8|page=14}}</ref>

The small commercial district along Alpine Boulevard has seen some [[suburban]] development in recent decades, and it is surrounded by large stretches of less densely populated rural areas that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Horse ranches and small farms are still common, along with open chaparral hillsides and riparian canyons.

In 2003, the [[Cedar Fire]] ravaged the Alpine area.