About Chino Hills

Chino Hills is a suburb located in the southwestern corner of San Bernardino County, California, United States. The city borders Los Angeles County on its northwest side, Orange County to its south, and Riverside County to its southeast. The city had a population of 74,799 at the 2010 census.

Chino Hills was ranked 34th in Money magazine's "Best places to live 2012." It is also the 6th highest income place in the United States (with population 65,000 to 250,000) and was ranked as the 13th safest city in the United States in 2008 by the FBI. Chino Hills is a part of the Chino Valley.

Chino Hills' reputation is known in the national arena as well, as it was featured on the list of 87 of America's hottest towns in the January 2004 issue of Money magazine. Chino Hills was ranked 8th on the list of “best places in the west with a population under 100,000.” The magazine reviewed a decade of data for communities with above average population growth, income, and home prices "to see where people were most willing to devote a high multiple of their annual income to live happily ever after."

After the Spanish founded Mission San Gabriel in 1771, the Chino Hills were used extensively for grazing by mission cattle. During the Mexican Republic era, the hills were used as spillover grazing from such surrounding Mexican ranchos as Santa Ana del Chino and Rancho La Sierra (Yorba). After Mexico ceded California to the United States in 1848, the land was still used primarily for grazing. Except for the area of Prado Dam, which was, and still is, a swamp and subject to flooding annually. Most historical dwellings were demolished in the rush to build. A local state monument is present in the grass lawn area of the local fire department, if one looks closely. Casa Colina, a well-known rehabilitation center now situated in Pomona California, began as a tubercular clinic in the Los Serranos sector. Similarly, the well-known hospital, Loma Linda Hospital, also had its beginnings as a tubercular clinic. Sadly, most patients admitted for tuberculosis, succumbed to the illness because of the ineffectiveness of pre-antibiotic treatments.

This land was sold to Richard Gird, the founder of nearby Chino subdivision and from which the town of Chino sprung in 1910. With the building of the Carbon Canyon Mineral Springs in the modern-day Sleepy Hollow region of the city and the new Los Serrano’s Country Club in Los Serranos, Chino Hills, California, the area became a destination for both Los Angeles tourists and bootleggers during the prohibition because of its isolation. For the same reason, Sleepy Hollow became a destination for hippies and artists during the 1960s. During the late 1980s, an incorporation effort began and in 1991, the city was incorporated with a population of 42,000.