El Monte became an established community late in the 1850s-much earlier than most cities in what later became Los Angeles County-as the western terminus of the Santa Fe Trail.
The city incorporated in 1912 and, in the ensuing decades, became the home of Gay\'s Lion Farm, where Metro-Goldwyn-M.
Its situation between the watersheds of the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River made it one of early California\'s most fertile farming areas, with English walnut trees and dairy farms dotting the countryside.
El Monte became an established community late in the 1850s-much earlier than most cities in what later became Los Angeles County-as the western terminus of the Santa Fe Trail