Editing Bellflower, California (section)

==History==
The original title to the Bellflower area dates back to 1784 with one of the first Spanish land grants in California. The Bellflower area was a hunting and fishing spot due to an abundance of wild game, ducks and geese, carp and perch. The area was also used for cattle and grazing dairy cows but settlers moved away. Willow, bamboo, and underbrush, wild grape, blackberry, and rose bushes were grown along the river the name of The Willows and The Wilderness.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bellflower.org/community/about_bellflower_/city_history.php|title=Bellflower, CA|website=www.bellflower.org|accessdate=December 20, 2023}}</ref>

The site was formerly rich farmland watered by artesian wells and floodwaters of the now-contained [[San Gabriel River (California)|San Gabriel River]]. In 1906, F.E. Woodruff, a local real estate investor,<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Mr. F.E. Woodruff of the Active and Reliable Real Estate Firm of Peet & Woodruff Will Live in Westmoreland Tract  |date=November 12, 1903 |work=Los Angeles Herald |volume=XXXI |number=42 |page=8 |url= https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19031112.2.165&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> founded the first municipality on the site, which was named Somerset in 1909 when a post office was established there.<ref name=Gudde>{{cite book|last1=Gudde|first1=Erwin G.|title=California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names|url=https://archive.org/details/californiaplacen00gudd|url-access=registration|date=1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26619-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/californiaplacen00gudd/page/31 31]}}</ref> However, the proponents of the name 'Bellflower' claimed that the US Post Office Department rejected the name 'Somerset' to prevent confusion with [[Somerset, Colorado]].<ref name=Gudde /> The present name is derived from the [[bellflower apple]], which was grown in local orchards during the early 1900s.

Originally settled by dairy farmers of Dutch, Japanese, and Portuguese descent, Bellflower and neighboring [[Paramount, California|Paramount]] served first as the apple and later the milk production centers for Southern California, until soaring post-[[World War II]] property values forced most of the farmers to move several miles east to the Dairy Valley/Dairyland/Dairy City area (now the cities of [[Cerritos, California|Cerritos]], [[La Palma, California|La Palma]], and [[Cypress, California|Cypress]]). These farms were in turn converted into large housing subdivisions for Los Angeles's growing population that worked in the region's skilled industrial and service sectors. As a result, amongst the highly diverse backgrounds in Bellflower, there remains today a notable number of residents of Dutch descent; Bellflower is one of the only cities in the US to boast multiple Dutch grocery stores.

After Bellflower was incorporated in 1957, its gradual metamorphosis from agricultural center to residential suburb continued. From the 1950s through the late 1960s, Bellflower Boulevard, the city's main thoroughfare, was a thriving commercial strip for shopping. Numerous retail and franchise restaurant firms began on this street, which also featured middle- and high-end boutiques, arts and crafts shops, and other small shopkeeps alongside larger department stores and banks. Today, Bellflower is an urban community within greater Southeast Los Angeles, and ranks amongst the [[List of United States cities by population density#Cities|most densely populated cities in the United States]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade.2010.html|title = Decennial Census of Population and Housing by Decades}}</ref> It is a [[sister cities|sister city]] with [[Los Mochis]], [[Sinaloa]], Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://portal.clubrunner.ca/2509/Stories/bellflower-sister-city-project|title=Fundraiser for Bellflower/Los Mochis Sister City Project|website=Portal.clubrunner.ca}}</ref>