Moreno Valley is a city located in Riverside County, California. As of January 1, 2008, the population of Moreno Valley was 180,466.State of California, Department of Finance,'E-1 Population Estimates for Cities, Counties and the State with Annual Percent Change-January 1, 2005 and 2006]. 'Sacramento, California, May 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2007. A relatively young city, its rapid growth in the 1980s and the 2000s propelled it to its status as second-largest city in Riverside County by population, and one of the Inland Empire (California)'s population centers. Neighboring Riverside, California is the county seat and largest city in the county;...

Moreno Valley is a city located in Riverside County, California. As of January 1, 2008, the population of Moreno Valley was 180,466.State of California, Department of Finance,'E-1 Population Estimates for Cities, Counties and the State with Annual Percent Change-January 1, 2005 and 2006]. 'Sacramento, California, May 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2007. A relatively young city, its rapid growth in the 1980s and the 2000s propelled it to its status as second-largest city in Riverside County by population, and one of the Inland Empire (California)'s population centers. Neighboring Riverside, California is the county seat and largest city in the county; the two cities are closely tied, sharing March Air Reserve Base with the city of Perris, California and is north of Lake Perris.

History
=Prehistory to 1800s=
Moreno Valley was originally inhabited by Native Americans in the United Statess of the Shoshone tribe. They were hunter-gatherers. The first Europeans to see the area were Spanish scouts sent from Mexico to explore the area. They blazed a number of trails, including the Anza Trail, which cuts through the Edgemont area of present-day Moreno Valley. Little attention, however, was paid to the relatively dry Moreno Valley area.

=U.S. settlement=
When California entered the United States as a state in 1850, Americans began to move into the area. The Tucson, Arizona-to-San Francisco, California route of John Butterfield's Overland Mail Company passed through Moreno Valley. Some farmers began to occupy the area. They relied upon Frank E. Brown's Bear Valley Land and Water Company to provide them water, which was collected and pumped from Bear Valley in the San Bernardino Mountains to the north. Brown began performing this service in 1883. In 1899, the city of Redlands, California won a lawsuit in which the city claimed eminent domain over the Bear Valley water; the resulting loss of service forced most of Moreno Valley's inhabitants to move. The valley first acquired its current name,'Moreno Valley,'at this time; the name is derived from Frank Brown's name ('moreno'is Spanish language for'brown').

=March Field=
The revival of Moreno Valley began in 1918, when the United States Air Force (then the United States Army Air Service) constructed March Field on the outskirts of Riverside as part of its World War I expansion. March Field was initially used to train fighter pilots. Although it was closed in 1922, it was reopened in 1927 and eventually became a full Air Force base. The presence of March caused the unincorporated communities of Sunnymead, Moreno, and Edgemont to develop and grow. In World War II, March again became a training ground for military pilots.

=Riverside International Raceway=