The City of Lancaster was incorporated in 1977. Rapid growth since incorporation has expanded the City to a population of over 150,000 residents, making up over 60,000 households. Lancaster is on the northern edge of Los Angeles County and the heart of the Antelope Valley. Close to home but just far enough away, Lancaster is an affordable escape, where you can explore the high desert’s beauty while experiencing an artfully crafted urban scene. This unique blending of open spaces and urban places creates a destination full of energy and the perfect spot to savor the many joys of life.
Whether you prefer a placid escape or an animated adventure, you’ll find the perfect get-away right on the edge of Los Angeles County and in the heart of the Antelope Valley. Close in and comfortable, Lancaster is a place where people come together to experience the exhilarating diversity of open spaces and the invigorating energy of urban places! This inviting, friendly high desert locale blends the best of both worlds to offer you a nearly endless choice of activities ranging from the exhilarating to the sublime. Find new joy in unexpected ways. Plan your stay today. Whether you’re into high-speed racing, high-flying aviation or high-impact athletics, Lancaster offers the perfect base for all sorts of adrenaline pumping excitement.
Lancaster, the hub of the beautiful California high desert and gateway to world renowned Death Valley, offers the charm of four seasons flavored with three hundred and sixty plus days of clear blue skies. You will be treated to magical skylines, mountainous vistas, snowcapped in the winter, brilliant sunrises, soft colorful sunsets and deep blue skies which make it positively clear that Lancaster is the perfect home away from home in the magnificent California High Desert.
Just 60 miles north of Los Angeles, located in Antelope “Aerospace” Valley, Lancaster is home to a long rich history of aviation and technology innovation, flight research and world class aerospace accomplishments. Lancaster is proud of its local heroes such as Chuck Yeager, Pete Knight, Burt and Dick Rutan and neighboring research and testing facilities such as Edwards Air force Base, China Lake Naval Training Center, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, Lockheed Skunkworks along with new projects such as the F-35 Strikeforce Fighter and the development of unmanned flight technology.
It’s not unusual for Lancaster residents and visitors to be treated to once in a lifetime opportunities to view the best of the past, present and future of aviation technology in the Valley’s bright blue sky!
The Destination Lancaster Board of Directors is comprised of dynamic professionals representing the City of Lancaster, the Antelope Valley Fair and Events Center, the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, and the Lancaster hotel industry. Together, these partners work as a team to improve the tourism experience in Lancaster and identify opportunities to create more opportunities for those wishing to discover our unique and exciting community.
Native Americans roamed the Antelope Valley ten thousand years before Southern Pacific railway tycoons Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Collis Huntington decided to find the perfect rail route from San Francisco to Los Angeles. In 1876, Sp’s railway engineers and thousands of Chinese laborers constructed the Tehachapi Loop as a way to overcome the 4,000 foot Tehachapi Pass. As luck would have it, the tracks ran through an area of the Antelope Valley with artesian wells which could feed the steam engines, and thus Lancaster was born as a whistle stop along the inland route from LA to the Bay. With the railroad came people and throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s the town grew to a thriving community of 1,500 people by 1930.
In the late ’30s, the Army set up a bombing range out at Muroc Air field, and by 1941, the RAF were training pilots here. Muroc Field eventually became Edwards Air Force Base. By the end of World War ii, the Antelope Valley had secured its place in aviation history as a team of test pilots began pushing the limits of new jet and rocket technology captured from the Germans. Chuck Yeager, one of those pilots, leapt into headlines and history books by breaking the sound barrier for the first time in the skies over Lancaster.
From 1950 to 1960, Lancaster grew by leaps and bounds as returning veterans found affordable homes and new jobs in the Antelope Valley. In this “booming” decade of rocket planes, the City grew from 3,600 to almost 30,000. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy set the nation on a path for the moon and sent a new crew of astronauts out to Edwards to learn how to fly fast. They learned the right stuff here, with a little help from Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
By the 1970s aerospace really took off in the Antelope Valley with Plant 42 manufacturing space shuttles and stealth aircraft, one after another. In 1977, Lancaster incorporated and elected its first city council to gain greater control of its meteoric growth. Over the next three and a half decades, the City’s population nearly quadrupled from 37,000 in 1977 to 150,000+ today. Along the way, the City matured into the eighth largest city in Los Angeles County with exciting new cultural assets such as the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, an appealing quality of life and a remarkable affordability that continue to draw many new residents and visitors to the City. Despite its rapid growth and high-tech image, Lancaster remains a friendly, family-focused community where people appreciate fresh air, blue skies and sunshine more than 300 days a year.
