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Temecula takes its name from the Luiseno word Temeekunga, and it is said to be the only city in California that still carries its original Native American name.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians believe their ancestors have lived in the Temecula Valley for more than 10,000 years, and in Pechanga tradition life on Earth began in the Temecula Valley.

Temecula's post office, the seed of the modern town, dates to April 22, 1859, when the settlement was a stagecoach and crossroads stop.

The United States established the Pechanga Indian Reservation, about 4,000 acres just south of the present city, in 1882.

For much of the 20th century the valley was dominated by the Vail Ranch, which grew to more than 87,500 acres before the Vail family sold it in 1964 to a Kaiser-Aetna partnership that developed it as Rancho California.

The valley's first commercial vineyard was planted in 1968, and the Temecula Valley wine region was federally recognized as an American Viticultural Area in 1984.

Temecula Valley Wine Country now counts more than 40 wineries and draws nearly three million visitors a year.

Temecula incorporated as a city on December 1, 1989, with Ron Parks as its first mayor; the first census count of the new city in 1990 found just 27,099 people.

The 2020 census counted 110,003 residents in Temecula, roughly four times its population at incorporation.

Temecula has about 36,500 households, averaging about 3 people per household, with nearly four out of five households being families.