The 25th Annual Ojai Day will be held downtown on Saturday October 20th, from 10:00am to 5:00pm, and will celebrate “life, culture and the arts.”
Chumash Indians originally named the area Ojai, meaning “moon” or “bird’s nest”. We have since self-identified it as Shangri-La and focus on a culture of health, spirituality, art, and music. Chain stores are prohibited by city law but, as of 2018, recreational marijuana is not.
Here are some interesting dates in our Valley’s history…
1853 – Prospectors moved on to land, sold by Fernando Tico, looking for oil.
1874 – Town mapped and named Nordhoff after the writer Charles Nordhoff.
1887 – The Ojai Tennis Tournament was founded, and is now the oldest tournament west of the Mississippi River.
1891 – The Ojai Valley News, a weekly local newspaper, was established.
1913 – January saw the lowest temperature on record, a bone-chilling 13F.
1917 – Leading up to World War II, anti-German sentiment led to the town being renamed Ojai. The first ever Ojai Day was held in March. June had the highest temperature on record, of 119F. A fire destroyed most of the downtown neighborhood.
1947 – The Ojai Music Festival is established.
1957 – Construction on the Libbey Bowl is completed for the annual Music Festival, featuring Aaron Copeland conducting The Tender Land.
1964 – Bart’s Books opens.
1968 – The movie Head, starring The Monkees, was written by Jack Nicholson in Ojai.
1969 – January was the wettest month on record with 23.46 inches falling in 8 days.
1979 – Ravi Shankar performs at the Ojai Music Festival.
1982 – The Ventura County Humane Society opens an animal shelter on Bryant Street.
1984 – Lake Casitas is a site for the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
1991 – Craig Walker initiates the return of Ojai Day, that had previously ended in 1928.
1998 – Ojai Playwrights Conference is founded.
2000 – The 100th Anniversary of the Ojai Tennis Tournament is celebrated. The Ojai Raptor Center is founded by Kimberly Stroud.
2002 – Cluff Vista Park is completed, featuring California native plants.
2010 – The movie Easy A, starring Emma Stone, is filmed in Ojai. The Ojai Skate Park is constructed.
2015 – Kylie Jenner receives her high school diploma from Laurel Springs School.
2016 – The United States Census reported that the city population reached 7,585 people, an increase of 1.7% since 2010.
