Oxnard was rumored to be the perfect getaway for Hollywood's elite, as Rudolph Valentino filmed The Sheik here, John Wayne came up to fish, and Clark Gable always seemed to be playing around at one thing or another. Makes you wonder how the students at Oxnard College get any work done.

Where, you ask, did Oxnard get its name? From Henry Oxnard and his brothers, who constructed a sugar beet factory here in 1897, thus shifting the area's early agricultural emphasis from barley and lima beans to the granulated sweet stuff.

While farming remains a major industry in this Ventura County coastal city of around 155,000, the addition of a military base in the 1940s and subsequent defense-related industries have contributed to a diversified economy. Oxnard also has the only deep water port between Los Angeles (62 miles to the southeast) and San Francisco.