The city Pomona was named after the ancient Roman goddess of fruit. In typical Southern California fashion of the 1870s, boosters gave the town this name before a single orange tree had been planted within its boundaries. However, by the late 1800s, the arrival of railroads and Coachella Valley water had made it the western anchor of the citrus-growing region that encompassed most of what is now known unofficially as the Inland Empire.
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