Ojai, California City Guide
For over 20 years, Pamela Lanier's Ojai, California Travel Guide has been your connection to Ojai's tourism community with invaluable details on local attractions, restaurants, shopping, museums, history, outdoor recreation and more.
Ojai History
The Chumash were the earliest know inhabitants and it was they who named the valley Ojai meaning “Valley of the Moon”. In 1837, the land became one of the many Spanish/Mexican land grants and a cattle ranch was established. When oil prospectors came searching in 1853, the land was sold but no oil was ever found. Settlers arrived in 1864 and when the town was established in 1874, it was named Nordhoff as a tribute to the German born writer, who had immigrated to the US, in 1845. The town was renamed to Ojai in 1917, due to anti-German sentiment that proliferated during the First World War.
Edward Libbey, founder of the Libbey Glass Company, had visited Ojai and fell in love with it. After a fire destroyed much of Ojai, Libbey financed and designed the rebuilding of Ojai in the contemporary Colonial-Revival architectural style of that era. Be sure to visit the structures that were his gift to the town. Ask you bed and breakfast innkeepers for a more comprehensive history and to direct you to the pergola, bell tower and arcade that still distinguish downtown Ojai.
