Simi Valley

Simi Valley is a city in southeastern Ventura County, California, in a valley of the same name between the Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills. Shimiyi, a Chumash word for the thin, thread-like clouds of the region, gave it its name.

The Chumash had several villages in the valley, among them Shimiyi and Ta'apu in the present Tapo Canyon, and they left painted caves in the Simi Hills. Rancho Simí, granted to Santiago Pico in 1795, was the earliest Spanish land grant in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and it passed to his sons after his death. Ranchers and farmers settled the valley in the late 19th century, and the railroad tunnel under the Santa Susana Pass opened in the early 1900s. The freeway over the pass brought commuters from Los Angeles, and Simi Valley became a city in 1969.

Machinery and tool makers form the main industry of the city, followed by metal working, and the valley's workshops make plastic products, wood products and clothing. Movie ranches in the hills, such as Corriganville, filmed Westerns and television series from the 1930s to the 1960s.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library stands on a hilltop above the city, and its hangar keeps the Boeing 707 that served as Air Force One for presidents from Nixon to George W. Bush. The Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center fills a neoclassical Methodist church of the 1920s with plays and concerts. Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village, a folk art garden of houses and shrines built from glass bottles, is a California Historical Landmark.