to
Update
is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 23,562 at the 2000 census. It is situated in the San Gorgonio Pass, also known as
. It is named for Phineas Banning, stagecoach line owner and the "Father of the Port of Los Angeles."
Banning has a western neighbor, the city of Beaumont, which shares geographic and regional features. Beaumont has been rapidly growing in size and population since the 1980s.
, (FAA designator: BNG), has a runway.
is a General Acute Care Hospital in Banning with Basic Emergency Services as of 2005.
The area, up to the mid-19th century, was inhabited by the Cahuilla people, though the region around Banning was originally Maringayam (Serrano), and the Cahuilla expanded into the pass only in historic times. In 1824 it became part of the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, and then the
. The first Anglo to settle in the area was Dr. Isaac Smith in 1853. In 1863 a smallpox epidemic further diminished the Cahuilla. The government created Indian reservations for the Cahuilla in 1877.
The first stagecoach line came through in 1862, and the railroad followed in 1876. U.S. Route 99 was built in 1923, followed by U.S. Route 60/70 in 1936, and subsequently Interstate 10. The Southern Pacific (later purchased by Union Pacific) railroad, laid down in 1881, was a major contributor to the area's growth.
Banning borders the Morongo Indian Reservation. Relations with reservation residents have been stressed by such actions as disputes over water rights. See Dorothy Ramon's book (published 2000) "Always Believe" for a Maringayam's views on Banning and reservation life.
Banning is named after famed L.A. entrepreneur Phinneas Banning, yet he never set foot in the city, nor anywhere in the San Gorgonio Pass area.
The early western poet and author Henry Herbert Knibbs lived his last years in Banning.