Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 173,516, making Lancaster the 158th-most populous city in the United States and the 30th most populous in California. Lancaster is a twin city with its southern neighbor Palmdale; together, they are the principal cities within the Antelope Valley region.
Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south.
The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States, and the southeast portion of California's Kern County, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and the San Gabriel Mountains. The valley was named for the pronghorns that roamed there until they were all eliminated in the 1880s, mostly by hunting, or resettled in other areas. The principal cities in the Antelope Valley are Palmdale and Lancaster.
State Route 14 (SR 14) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects Los Angeles to the northern Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Granada Hills and Sylmar just immediately to the south of the border of the city of Santa Clarita. SR 14's northern terminus is at U.S. Route 395 (US 395) near Inyokern. Legislatively, the route extends south of I-5 to SR 1 in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles; however, the portion south of the junction with I-5 has not been constructed. The southern part of the constructed route is a busy commuter freeway serving and connecting the cities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale, and Lancaster to the rest of the Greater Los Angeles area. The northern portion, from Vincent to US 395, is legislatively named the Aerospace Highway, as the highway serves Edwards Air Force Base, once one of the primary landing strips for NASA's Space Shuttle, as well as the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake that supports military aerospace research, development and testing. This section is rural, following the line between the hot Mojave desert and the forming Sierra Nevada mountain range. Most of SR 14 is loosely paralleled by a rail line originally built by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and was once the primary rail link between Los Angeles and Northern California. While no longer a primary rail line, the southern half of this line is now used for the Antelope Valley Line of the Metrolink commuter rail system.
Leona Valley is a census-designated place located in the geographic Leona Valley of northern Los Angeles County, California, in the transition between the Sierra Pelona Mountains and Mojave Desert, just west of Palmdale and the Antelope Valley. The population was 1,607 at the 2010 census.
Sun Village is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is in the eastern Antelope Valley at an elevation of 2,723 feet (830 m). The center of Sun Village may be considered to be Palmdale Boulevard and 87th Street East as noted at the Los Angeles County Assessors office. As of the 2010 census the population of Sun Village was 11,565, up from 9,375 at the 2000 census.
Antelope Valley College (AVC) is a public community college in Lancaster, California. It is part of the California Community College system. It is operated by the Antelope Valley Community College District, with a primary service area of 1,945 square miles (5,040 km2) covering portions of Los Angeles and Kern counties. Instruction is offered at several sites, including Palmdale and Lancaster, and through online and instructional television courses.
The Antelope Valley Line is a commuter rail line that serves the Northern Los Angeles County area as part of the Metrolink system. The northern segment of the line is rural in character because it travels through the sparsely populated Soledad Canyon between Santa Clarita and Palmdale, serving the small community of Acton along the way. Other portions of its route parallel the former US Route 6, now San Fernando Road and Sierra Highway. This is the only Metrolink line contained entirely within Los Angeles County.
The Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California, after the unrelated Los Angeles Times, and the flagship newspaper of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado-based Digital First Media.
The Daily News – Antelope Valley was an edition of the Los Angeles Daily News, with offices in Palmdale, California, United States. At one time the publication was the area's second largest circulating daily newspaper. It was owned by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, whose flagship publication is the Los Angeles Daily News.
The Daily Breeze is a 57,000-circulation daily newspaper published in Hermosa Beach, California, United States. It serves the South Bay cities of Los Angeles County. Its slogan is "LAX to LA Harbor".
Lake Hughes is an unincorporated community in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, northwest of Palmdale and north of the Santa Clarita Valley, in the Angeles National Forest. It is on the sag pond waters of Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake. The community is rural in character, with a population of 649 in 2010, but also has a strong recreational element centered on the three lakes in the vicinity. The community of Elizabeth Lake is located just east of Lake Hughes, sharing the same ZIP code.
Palmdale High School is located in Palmdale, California and is part of the Antelope Valley Union High School District. About 4,000 students attend Palmdale High School in grades 9 through 12. Palmdale High School was founded in 1956.
The Press-Enterprise is a paid daily newspaper published by Digital First Media that serves the Inland Empire in Southern California. Headquartered in downtown Riverside, California, it is the primary newspaper for Riverside County, with heavy penetration into neighboring San Bernardino County. The geographic circulation area of the newspaper spans from the border of Orange County to the west, east to the Coachella Valley, north to the San Bernardino Mountains, and south to the San Diego County line. The Press-Enterprise is a member of the Southern California News Group.
Vincent Grade/Acton station is a Metrolink rail station just north of the community of Acton, California. It is served by Metrolink's Antelope Valley Line from Los Angeles Union Station to Lancaster.
Antelope Valley Transit Authority is the transit agency serving the cities of Palmdale, Lancaster and Northern Los Angeles County. Antelope Valley Transit Authority is operated under contract by MV Transportation, and is affiliated with and offers connecting services with Metro and Metrolink. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 1,523,700, or about 5,300 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2024.
Alta Newspaper Group Limited Partnership is a Vancouver-based publisher of newspapers in Western Canada and Quebec. It owns three small daily newspapers and more than a dozen weeklies.
Steven D. "Steve" Hofbauer is an American politician and former senior Fire Inspector from California. Hofbauer was the last directly elected mayor of Palmdale, California before the city changed its process to a rotating system.
Raymond "Rex" Parris Jr. is an American attorney and the current mayor of Lancaster, California.
Juan Carrillo is an American politician. He serves as a Democratic member for the 39th district of the California State Assembly, which includes Palmdale, Lake Los Angeles, Adelanto, and Victorville.
