Loma Linda, CA

Loma Linda’s defining medical complex grew from a failed railroad-era resort. The development began as Mound City, with a hotel completed in 1887; investors later reopened the property as a health resort and renamed it Loma Linda, Spanish for “pretty hill.” The Seventh-day Adventist Church purchased the property in 1905, established a sanitarium and nursing school, and secured a medical-school charter in 1909. Those institutions evolved into Loma Linda University and Loma Linda University Medical Center. The city incorporated in 1970 and had 24,791 residents in the 2020 census. It lies in San Bernardino County about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, next to Interstate 10.