Editing Lancaster, California (section)

==History==
[[File:Moses Langley Wicks Image 796 of An illustrated history of Los Angeles County, California.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Moses Langley Wicks, pioneer developer of Lancaster]]
[[Antelope Valley]], the area where Lancaster is now located, was home to the [[Northern Paiute|Paiute]] tribe at the time of first contact with Europeans. The Antelope Valley's central geography then served as the hub of a trade route for tribes trading between the California coast, the Central Valley, the Great Basin, and the pueblos of Arizona.<ref>{{Cite web|last=California State Parks|title=Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park|url=https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=632|website=California State Parks}}</ref>

After statehood, the Antelope Valley again served as a geographic shortcut but for the [[Stockton–Los Angeles Road|Stockton-Los Angeles Road]] and the [[Butterfield Overland Mail in California|Butterfield Overland Mail]], which had two nearby stops in [[Mud Spring (Antelope Valley)|Mud Spring]] and [[Neenach, California#Cow Springs and French John's Station|Neenach]] in the 1850s. However, Lancaster's origins as a settlement start with the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]], which replaced the stage coach routes. The railroad built a station house, locomotive watering facility, section gang housing, and railroad track in the location of the town's current center. In 1876 the Southern Pacific completed the line through the Antelope Valley,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityoflancasterca.org/about-us/history-of-lancaster/1876-1910-the-beginning |title=1876-1910: The Beginning - City of Lancaster |website=Cityoflancasterca.org |access-date=March 29, 2018}}</ref> linking [[San Francisco]] and [[Los Angeles]].

Lancaster began as a Scottish settlement.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cityoflancasterca.org/our-city/about-us/history-demographics/history-of-lancaster | title=History of Lancaster &#124; City of Lancaster }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Lancaster-California | title=Lancaster &#124; Antelope Valley, Mojave Desert, Aerospace &#124; Britannica | date=November 24, 2023 }}</ref> The origin of Lancaster's name is unclear, attributed variously to the surname of a railroad station clerk, the moniker given by railroad officials, or the former Pennsylvania home ([[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]]) of unknown settlers. Train service brought passengers through the water-stop-turned-community, which, with the help of promotional literature, attracted new settlers. The person credited with formally developing the town is Moses Langley Wicks, who in 1884 bought property from the railroad for $2.50 per acre, mapped out a town with streets and lots, and by September was advertising 160-acre tracts of land for $6 an acre. The following year, the Lancaster News started publication, making it the first weekly newspaper in the Antelope Valley. By 1890, Lancaster was bustling and booming, and thanks to adequate rainfall, farmers planted and sold thousands of acres of wheat and barley.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dUolnkEIeEC|title=Lancaster|isbn=9780738529813 |last1=Gurba |first1=Norma H. |year=2005 |publisher=Arcadia }}</ref>

{| style="margin:auto"
| [[file:Lancaster Museum, Lancaster Blvd.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Western Hotel Museum, Lancaster: The oldest standing structure in Lancaster]]
| [[file:Lancaster museum plaque.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Historical plaque in front of the Western Hotel Museum]]
| [[file:Lancaster Museum2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Western Hotel Museum, Lancaster, viewed at an angle to show side of building]]
|}

The town was devastated by the decade-long drought that began in 1894, killing businesses and driving cattle north, though fortunes improved somewhat in the late-1890s following the nearby discoveries of gold and [[borax]]. The Tropico Gold Mine in [[Rosamond, California|Rosamond]] was briefly the largest goldmine in Southern California before its 1956 closure.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Los Angeles Times|date=November 22, 1987|title=Old Gold Mine Abandoned but Not Forgotten|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-11-22-mn-23918-story.html|access-date=February 9, 2021|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=SCTV|title=Mojave Desert {{!}} Abandoned Tropico Gold Camp, Rosamond|url=https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/lw2371c.htm|access-date=February 9, 2021|website=scvhistory.com|publisher=Santa Clarita Valley Public Television}}</ref> The [[Pacific Coast Borax Company]] mine would later become the world's largest borax mine, producing nearly half of the world's supply of borates.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Stringfellow|first=Kim|date=April 2016|title=Borax: The Magic Crystal|url=https://mojaveproject.org/dispatches-item/borax-the-magic-crystal/|access-date=February 9, 2021|website=The Mojave Project}}</ref> The 1912 completion of [[Antelope Valley High School]] allowed students from the growing region to study locally instead of moving to distant cities, hosting the state's first high school dormitory system.<ref>{{Cite web|last=AVHS|title=Antelope Valley High School {{!}} About|url=https://www.antelopevalleyhs.org/about|website=Antelope Valley High School}}</ref>

[[California State Prison, Los Angeles County|Lancaster State Prison]] opened in 1993 and before that Los Angeles County hosted no prisons but accounted for forty percent of California's state-prison inmates.<ref>Wolcott, Denis. First Inmates Arrive at New Prison - Lancaster's 252 acre State Facility to Hold 2,200. ''Daily News of Los Angeles'', February 2, 1993.</ref> "Most of Lancaster's civic leaders and residents" opposed the building of the prison, and four inmates escaped from LAC in its first year of operation.<ref name=Fox>Fox, Sue. "Prison, Lancaster Mend Fences and Build Tranquil Relationship". ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', May 14, 2000.</ref> Nevertheless, by 2000 a proposal to increase the proportion of maximum-security inmates received little criticism.<ref name=Fox/>

[[File:Lancaster, California. Sign on main street designating military zone. - NARA - 536860.jpg|thumb|left|A sign designating the military zone of Lancaster, 1942]]
In 2005, Hyundai Motor Co. announced the grand opening of a 4,300-acre, $60 million "Proving Ground", a state-of-the-art testing facility for cars and sports utility vehicles in nearby [[California City, California|California City]].

In 2010, the city opened The BLVD, a one-mile revitalized stretch of Lancaster Boulevard between 10th Street West and Sierra Highway, with additional construction on Elm Avenue and Fig Avenue continuing for the next few months.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cityoflancasterca.org/index.aspx?recordid=2087&page=20|title=City of Lancaster's BLVD Transformation Completed|website=cityoflancasterca.org|access-date=March 29, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214101546/http://cityoflancasterca.org/index.aspx?recordid=2087&page=20|archive-date=December 14, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

City leaders set the goal of becoming the nation's first Net-Zero municipality, wherein the city would produce more clean energy than it consumes. Much of the city's infrastructure including City Hall, local schools, and the minor league baseball stadium are solar-powered. In March 2013, Lancaster became the first city in the USA to require solar panels on all new homes in an effort to make the community more carbon neutral. The rule took effect in January 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/lancaster-to-require-solar-on-every-new-home|title=California City Wants to Require Solar on Every New Home|website=greentechmedia.com|access-date=March 29, 2018}}</ref>
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===War Eagle Field / Mira Loma===
[[War Eagle Field]] is a former airfield located in the Mojave Desert, about {{convert|5|mi|abbr=on}} west of central Lancaster.

In 1944, the flight school changed its name to Mira Loma Flight Academy. The airfield inactivated on October 1, 1945, and was declared surplus in 1946. Responsibility for it was given to the [[War Assets Administration]]. The land was then bought by Los Angeles County. The airfield was converted to the Mira Loma Detention Center. In 2012, Los Angeles County closed the detention center.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-xpm-2012-oct-17-la-ed-miraloma-20121017-story.html|title=The Mira Loma Detention Center mess|date=October 17, 2012|access-date=March 29, 2018|via=LA Times}}</ref> Los Angeles County is currently collaborating with the City of Lancaster, the [[faith-based community]], and the non-profit community to convert the facility into a winter shelter.<ref>{{cite web|title=Winter Shelter Program (Now Closed)|url=http://www.lahsa.org/winter_shelter_program|website=Lahsa.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426090533/http://www.lahsa.org/winter_shelter_program|archive-date=April 26, 2015|access-date=March 29, 2018}}</ref>