Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Ojai, CA

Ojai's name comes from the Ventureño Chumash word 'Awha'y, meaning 'Moon,' and the city incorporated on August 5, 1921, in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles.

Ojai had a population of 7,637 at the 2020 census, up from 7,461 in 2010, living in 3,194 households in a valley only about 10 miles long by 3 miles wide, ringed by hills and the Los Padres National Forest.

The town was laid out in 1874 and named Nordhoff, after travel writer Charles Nordhoff, whose book touted California for health and residence — the valley developed a reputation for healing air that drew health-seekers with respiratory illnesses.

Glass magnate Edward Drummond Libbey remade the town in 1916–17 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, building the landmark Ojai Arcade and a bell tower modeled on Havana Cathedral — and in March 1917 the town dropped the name Nordhoff and became Ojai.

Ojai calls itself 'Shangri-La,' after the mystical sanctuary in the 1937 film Lost Horizon, and locals treasure the 'Pink Moment,' when the setting sun washes the Topa Topa Mountains in pink and lavender light.

Ojai prohibits chain stores by city ordinance to protect its small, locally owned shops, and it is known for boutique hotels, organic farms and its farmers' market.

The Ventura and Ojai Valley Railroad reached Ojai in 1898; after floods destroyed the line in 1969, the route was converted into the Ojai Valley Trail in 1989, now a popular hiking and cycling path.

Ojai's public school is Nordhoff Junior High and High School — a reminder of the town's original name, since the campus formerly served as Nordhoff Union High School.

Ojai's recorded history includes one of California's earliest oil booms — on May 29, 1867, the Ojai No. 6 well struck a gusher at 550 feet on Sulphur Mountain, on land that had been part of the 17,716-acre Rancho Ojai granted to Fernando Tico in 1837.

When citizens wanted to thank Edward Libbey with a 'Libbey Day' in 1917, he suggested calling it 'Ojai Day' instead — first celebrated on April 7, 1917, the festival was revived in 1991 and is now held each October in Libbey Park, the downtown green he created.