Apple Valley is the High Desert's town of big lots and open sky. Spread across the east side of the Mojave River from Victorville, it has kept the ranch-country character it was founded on even as it has grown into one of the largest communities in the Victor Valley — and it is still, officially, a town, not a city.
The modern town was the work of two Long Beach oil-and-gas partners, Newton T. Bass and B.J. "Bud" Westlund, who formed the Apple Valley Ranchos Land Company in 1946 and sold the desert as a resort lifestyle: ranch lots, a landmark inn, and a steady stream of Hollywood guests. The most famous of them stayed. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans moved to Apple Valley in 1965 and became the town's best-known residents; the parkway that Town Hall sits on carries her name today. Apple Valley incorporated on November 14, 1988.
The draw is space. Half-acre and larger parcels are the norm across much of town, which means room for horses, workshops, RVs, a pool, or simply a yard with nothing but desert and mountains beyond it. Neighborhoods run from the established custom-home streets around Desert Knolls and the golf course to the newer tracts near Bear Valley Road, with the Jess Ranch active-adult community and its lakes on the south side of town.
Bear Valley Road is the commercial spine — shopping, dining, medical and the everyday errands are along it — and Highway 18 connects the town west to the I-15 corridor and east toward Lucerne Valley and the mountains. Town Hall on Dale Evans Parkway anchors the civic center, and the Apple Valley Unified School District serves families across town.
Apple Valley Unified School District
Apple Valley Town Hall
14955 Dale Evans Pkwy, Apple Valley, CA 92307
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