About San Dimas, California

San Dimas is a city with a total population of 33,371 as of the 2010 census. The city historically took its name from San Dimas Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains above the northern section of present-day San Dimas. San Dimas derives its name from the Spanish name for Saint Dismas.

The community started out in the early 1800s being called Mud Springs, named for the adjacent Mud Springs marsh whose wet and swampy terrain characterized the region.

San Dimas evolved into an agricultural community, especially noted for its orange and other citrus crops which were shipped all over the world. The citrus nurseries faded and finally disappeared in the mid-1900s with increasing development in San Dimas. After adjacent communities started annexing pieces of San Dimas in the late 1950s, it incorporated as a city in 1960. Today, conscious of its heritage, San Dimas maintains an early western look in its downtown area, complete with wooden sidewalks and old-fashioned western storefront facades.