Where the Orange Groves Gave Way to Steel: Route 66 Through Fontana
The story of Route 66 in Fontana, California is the story of transformation so complete and so dramatic that the city of today barely resembles the one that travelers encountered on the Mother Road in the 1930s and 1940s. When Jack DeVere Rittenhouse drove the route in 1946 for his landmark A Guide Book to Highway 66, he described this section with characteristic economy: “at 320 mi. you pass through one edge of FONTANA, where Henry Kaiser built the first steel blast furnace west of the Rockies during World War II. Now you pass through vineyard country and orange groves.” The steel blast furnace and the orange groves in the same sentence — that conjunction captures Fontana’s Route 66 identity precisely.
Today, with a 2020 Census population of over 208,000 — making it the second-most-populous city in San Bernardino County and the 20th largest city in California — Fontana is fully absorbed into the Inland Empire’s vast suburban and industrial landscape. The Auto Club Speedway NASCAR track (since undergoing renovation toward a short oval) sits on the former Kaiser Steel site, and the warehouses that define the modern Inland Empire economy have replaced much of the agricultural landscape that surrounded Foothill Boulevard in the highway’s golden years. But enough survives — and enough has happened here — to make Route 66 in Fontana one of the most historically layered stops on California’s corridor: steel and citrus, the Hells Angels and a possible Al Capone hideout, a 1936 Giant Orange stand and a row of surviving mid-century motels. Fontana’s Route 66 story is unlike any other on the California Mother Road.
Where Does Route 66 Run Through Fontana?
Route 66 runs along Foothill Boulevard through Fontana from east to west — the same alignment that carries the highway through most of the Inland Empire. Fontana sits between Rialto to the east (where the Wigwam Motel marks the boundary) and Rancho Cucamonga to the west. The city boundary at the eastern edge is North Maple Avenue, where Foothill Boulevard crosses from Rialto into Fontana, and the western boundary is at Grove Avenue, which separates Fontana from Rancho Cucamonga and Upland.
From Interstate 10: Take Citrus Avenue or Sierra Avenue north to Foothill Boulevard. From State Route 210 (Foothill Freeway): Multiple exits access Foothill Boulevard through Fontana. The Citrus Avenue and Sierra Avenue exits are most convenient for the Route 66 commercial corridor. Fontana is served by the Metrolink San Bernardino Line with a Fontana Station providing rail connections from downtown Los Angeles.
Fontana’s History: From Spanish Land Grant to Inland Empire Industrial Hub
The Name: Italian Fountain in the California Desert
The word “Fontana” is Italian and Spanish (in poetry) for “fountain” or “water source” — an apt name for a city whose early identity was defined by the irrigation that made agriculture possible in the semi-arid Inland Empire. The city sits in proximity to the Santa Ana River to the east, and the water infrastructure developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — including both surface irrigation and groundwater pumping — was what allowed the citrus orchards, vineyards, and diverse agricultural operations that Fontana would grow through before World War II.
The Rancho San Bernardino and A.B. Miller’s Agricultural Vision: 1839–1913
The land that became Fontana was originally part of the Rancho San Bernardino, granted to Antonio María Lugo in 1839 — the same year that Tiburtio Tapia received the Rancho Cucamonga land grant to the west. The area existed as ranch land through the Spanish and Mexican colonial periods and into the early American era. The community’s modern story begins with Azariel Blanchard Miller (A.B. Miller), a developer who founded the town of Fontana in 1913 (previously the area had been called “Rosena” from 1890 to 1919). Miller’s vision was a diversified agricultural community — not the single-crop focus of some neighboring towns but a varied production base of citrus, grapes, walnuts, poultry, and swine that would make the community resilient against the market fluctuations that plagued more specialized agricultural towns.
The Bono family’s story captures the early Fontana agricultural character vividly: the Bonos came to Fontana in the 1930s and owned a vineyard — one of what Joe Bono has described as “over 50 bonded vineyards in the Fontana area” during the region’s wine production peak. The family used large wooden casks to mash grapes in the classic winery tradition. Today there are no active vineyards in Fontana — the transition from agriculture to suburbia was complete — but the family’s Italian restaurant and the Giant Orange fruit stand on Foothill Boulevard preserved a piece of that agricultural heritage into the 21st century.
Route 66 Arrives: 1926
Route 66 was commissioned along the National Old Trails Highway alignment on November 11, 1926, and Foothill Boulevard through Fontana became part of the federal highway. The 1939 WPA Guide’s description of the corridor captures what Route 66 travelers experienced: “West of San Bernardino US 66 runs along the base of the Sierra Madre Mountains through the heart of a picture post card landscape orange groves overlooked by snowcapped peaks. The tile-roofed stucco towns among the orchards along the way are starting points for roads and trails into the forested mountains.” Fontana was specifically described as being in “a section of small citrus, grape, walnut, poultry, and rabbit farms. West of Fontana vineyards cover the foothills, dotted with wineries.”
For Route 66 travelers of the 1920s and 1930s, Fontana represented the transition from San Bernardino’s urban character to the long agricultural corridor that stretched westward through Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Claremont, Pomona, and into the San Gabriel Valley. The highway through Fontana was at that time “one lane in each direction” — as Joe Bono has remembered it — running through a landscape of farms and orchards with scattered commercial buildings at key crossroads. The Automobile Club of Southern California’s 1954 guide described Fontana as “an important steel manufacturing center… situated close to the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, Fontana has an attractive setting and is surrounded by small but thriving communities.”
Henry J. Kaiser and the First Steel Blast Furnace West of the Rockies
The most historically significant event in Fontana’s modern history — and the one that most dramatically altered its Route 66 identity — was the construction of the Kaiser Steel Mill during World War II. Entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser selected Fontana in 1941–1942 as the site for a massive integrated steel plant, built to supply the ship-building yards in Long Beach and other war production facilities in Southern California. The plant was revolutionary: it was one of only two steel mills located west of the Mississippi River and included the first steel blast furnace ever built west of the Rocky Mountains — a fact that Route 66 guide writer Jack Rittenhouse specifically noted in his 1946 account of the highway through Fontana.
The Kaiser Steel Mill transformed Fontana with remarkable speed. Steel workers — many from the Midwestern steel belt states — moved to the city in large numbers, and the population that had been largely agricultural grew rapidly with an industrial working class. Kaiser also built what became the medical facility that grew into Kaiser Permanente — today one of the largest managed care organizations in the United States — to provide healthcare for the mill’s workers. In this way, one of the defining features of modern American healthcare has its origins in a World War II steel plant on Route 66 in Fontana.
The Kaiser Steel Mill operated through the postwar decades before closing in the 1980s. The large smelting furnaces were sold to China, and portions of the site became a working steel mill operated by California Steel Industries (owned by the Japanese company JFE Steel Corporation). The rest of the former Kaiser Steel property was converted into the Auto Club Speedway — a two-mile NASCAR oval that hosted Cup Series racing and is currently undergoing transformation into a short oval similar to Bristol Motor Speedway. Notably, the Kaiser Steel Mill’s dramatic industrial architecture served as a filming location: the steel mill scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was shot there, as were Outworld scenes in the 1995 film version of Mortal Kombat, before the structures were demolished.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club: Born on Route 66 in Fontana, 1948
One of the most culturally significant events in American motorcycle and counterculture history occurred in Fontana, California in 1948, when the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was founded. The club — which would become the most famous and most controversial motorcycle club in the world — was established in Fontana on Route 66 in the immediate postwar period, when returning veterans were seeking brotherhood, freedom, and the open road that the Mother Road represented. The Fontana origin is the most broadly accepted historical account, though San Bernardino and Oakland also claim connections to the club’s early history.
The Hells Angels’ founding in Fontana is directly connected to the Route 66 corridor: the motorcycle culture that the highway’s open road encouraged in the postwar years, combined with the industrial working-class character that Kaiser Steel had brought to the city, created the social environment in which an outlaw motorcycle club could take root. The club’s leather-jacketed aesthetic and its love of high-performance motorcycles were also connected to the drag racing culture that Route 66 supported — the Fontana International Dragway (also known as Fontana Drag City) operated on the highway corridor in the 1950s and 1960s, providing a legal venue for the speed culture that defined the era.
Fontana’s Hells Angels connection also intersects with the film history of Route 66 through California: the 1953 Marlon Brando film The Wild One — one of the foundational texts of American motorcycle culture — was reportedly inspired in part by a motorcycle rally in nearby Hollister, California in 1947, one year before the Fontana founding. The film’s portrayal of a motorcycle gang descending on a small California town played directly into the public’s mixed fascination and anxiety about the motorcycle culture that Route 66 was helping to spread. Fontana is one of the places where that culture had its most concrete institutional expression.
Bono’s Restaurant and the Giant Orange: Route 66’s Most Photographed Fruit Stand
At the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Beech Avenue (formerly at Sultana Avenue), one of the most charming and widely photographed Route 66 landmarks in the Fontana area has stood since 1936: the Bono’s Historic Orange — a giant orange-shaped fruit stand, approximately 6.5 feet tall, that was built in 1936 and originally stood elsewhere on the Route 66 corridor before being saved from demolition in the 1990s and relocated to its present site in 1997 next to Bono’s Restaurant. Bono’s Orange is one of the last extant giant orange-shaped fruit stands from the era when such programmatic architecture was common along California’s agricultural highways — a piece of mid-century roadside Americana that has been documented by generations of Route 66 photographers and travel writers.
The Bono Family and Their Route 66 Restaurant
The Bono family’s connection to Fontana’s Route 66 identity goes back to the 1930s. The family arrived in Fontana, owned a vineyard, and then opened what became a beloved Route 66 institution: Bono’s Restaurant and Deli, operated by the Bono family since 1936 on Foothill Boulevard. The most famous family member with a wider cultural presence was Sonny Bono (of Sonny and Cher fame), who had family ties to the Fontana Bonos — route66mc.com’s Joe Bono was Sonny’s cousin and recalls having a photo of Sonny with President Reagan that Sonny’s wife brought. The restaurant served Italian food and deli items to Route 66 travelers for decades, becoming a standard reference in Route 66 guidebooks.
Bono’s Restaurant closed for several years and has faced the uncertainty that characterizes many historic Route 66 businesses in the suburban Inland Empire. The Giant Orange stand was moved into storage in early 2022 while the property was being worked on, with plans to repair and relocate it nearby — though as of the most recent reports, no firm timetable had been announced. Route 66 travelers who want to document the Giant Orange’s current status should verify before making a special trip. When both the restaurant and the orange stand are accessible, they constitute one of the most photogenic Route 66 stops in the eastern portion of the San Bernardino–Fontana corridor.
Surviving Route 66 Motels Along Fontana’s Foothill Boulevard
Fontana’s Foothill Boulevard retains a notable cluster of surviving mid-century motels — a collection of independently operated motor courts that have outlasted the Route 66 era and continue to serve travelers in the modern Inland Empire. Legends of America documented these as: “the El Rey, Rex, Dragon, Sand & Sage, Rose, and Sunset Motels [that] speak of better times along this old stretch of the highway.” Fontana was described as working with the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to improve and promote these surviving historic properties.
The Rose Motel
At 17829 East Foothill Boulevard, the Rose Motel is a characteristic survivor of Fontana’s Route 66 motel era — notable for its rough stone walls with curved parapets and a neon sign that has been present since the 1980s. The motel appears in the 1948 aerial photographs of the Fontana Foothill Boulevard corridor, confirming its Route 66-era origin. Like many surviving motels on the California Inland Empire corridor, the Rose is a working motel serving contemporary travelers while carrying the physical footprint and character of the mid-century motor court tradition.
The Dragon Motel, Sand & Sage, and Other Survivors
The Dragon Motel, Sand & Sage Motel, Rex Motel, and Sunset Motel collectively represent the commercial hospitality strip that served Route 66 travelers through Fontana during the highway’s active decades. Their names reflect the mid-century naming conventions of roadside accommodation — exotic (Dragon), regional-atmospheric (Sand & Sage), regal (Rex), and aspirational (Sunset) — and their physical presence along Foothill Boulevard constitutes the most direct material evidence of what Route 66 through Fontana looked and felt like in its golden years. For travelers interested in the documentary texture of the Mother Road, these surviving properties are worth a slow drive-by even if an overnight stay is not planned.
The Al Capone Hideout: Fontana’s Most Colorful Route 66 Legend
No account of Route 66 in Fontana is complete without at least acknowledging one of the more colorful legends attached to the city: the supposed Al Capone winter hideout at 8775 Tamarind Avenue — a 1925 estate of approximately 2,936 square feet located a short distance off Foothill Boulevard, where a prominent wrought-iron “C” is visible on the exterior chimney. The house has been described in Route 66 travel accounts as having a chimney with no fireplace — built above a hollow wall with several closets that may have been accessible from others — raising the possibility of concealed spaces suited to a man who had reason to hide things.
The legend holds that Al Capone (1899–1947) — the Chicago organized crime boss known as “Scarface” — had a second residence in Fontana intended as his winter home, taking advantage of the warm Southern California climate and the city’s location less than two hours from Los Angeles. Capone was the boss of Chicago’s organized crime during Prohibition, jailed for tax evasion in 1931, paroled in 1939 in poor health (syphilis), and died in 1947. Whether the Tamarind Avenue connection is genuine or urban myth has been genuinely debated by historians; the home was built in 1925, during Capone’s Prohibition peak years, and the Fontana area would have been a plausible warm-weather retreat for someone of his means and need for privacy.
The house is currently a private residence. Route 66 travelers who want to see the exterior can drive past 8775 Tamarind Avenue — it is approximately a 3-mile round trip from Foothill Boulevard — but should respect the privacy of the current residents. The property is documented in multiple Route 66 guides as a “short side trip” from the main alignment, and the wrought-iron “C” on the chimney provides the visual evidence that keeps the legend alive regardless of the historical uncertainty.
The Highway Through Fontana in Historical Accounts
Three historical accounts capture what Route 66 through Fontana looked like across different eras:
The 1939 WPA Guide described the landscape immediately around Fontana as: “The boulevard skirts the northern edge of FONTANA, 5.2 m. [from the Rialto boundary], (1,242 alt., 6,120 pop.), in a section of small citrus, grape, walnut, poultry, and rabbit farms. West of Fontana vineyards cover the foothills, dotted with wineries.” The population figure of 6,120 in 1939 reflects the pre-Kaiser period — an agricultural community of modest size with a distinctly rural character.
Jack Rittenhouse’s 1946 Guidebook recorded the key transition in progress: “at 320 mi. you pass through one edge of FONTANA, where Henry Kaiser built the first steel blast furnace west of the Rockies during World War II. Now you pass through vineyard country and orange groves.” The combination of the steel furnace and the vineyards in the same observation captures the extraordinary moment of transition Fontana was living through in 1946 — the industrial future and the agricultural past coexisting on the same stretch of highway.
The 1954 ACSC Guide had fully absorbed the transformation: “Alt. 1,242 Pop. 22,500 Fontana, 7 miles west of San Bernardino, on U.S. 66, and in an area producing diversified crops, including citrus fruits, grapes and walnuts, is also an important steel manufacturing center.” By 1954 the population had nearly quadrupled from 1939, reflecting the steel worker migration and the postwar suburban expansion, and the community was fully understood as an industrial city that happened to still have agricultural neighbors.
The U.S. Rabbit Experimental Station: Fontana’s Most Unusual California Landmark
Among Fontana’s lesser-known historical distinctions is its role as the site of the U.S. Rabbit Experimental Station — the first and only United States Department of Agriculture laboratory dedicated to the care and breeding of rabbits, which operated in Fontana from 1928 to 1965. During this 37-year period, Fontana researchers studied rabbits for their potential value in animal husbandry, examining the quality and volume of rabbit meat, fur, and leather. The station is listed as a California Historical Landmark — a formal recognition that stands alongside the Kaiser Steel Mill’s industrial significance and the Hells Angels’ cultural significance as evidence of the remarkable range of activities that Route 66 communities supported. The rabbit station is documented by the California Conference of Historical Societies as part of Fontana’s official heritage.
Practical Information for Your Fontana Route 66 Visit
Getting to Fontana
From the East (from Rialto/San Bernardino): Follow Foothill Boulevard west across North Maple Avenue and into Fontana. The Route 66 corridor continues unchanged from Rialto into Fontana.
From the West (from Rancho Cucamonga): Follow Foothill Boulevard east across Grove Avenue into Fontana.
From Interstate 10: Take Citrus Avenue or Sierra Avenue north to Foothill Boulevard and turn east or west as needed.
From State Route 210 (Foothill Freeway): Multiple exits connect to Foothill Boulevard through the city. The Sierra Avenue and Citrus Avenue exits are most convenient.
By Metrolink: The Fontana Station on the Metrolink San Bernardino Line provides rail access from downtown Los Angeles (Union Station). The station is near Foothill Boulevard.
Al Capone Hideout Side Trip
The supposed Capone residence at 8775 Tamarind Avenue is approximately a 3-mile round trip from Foothill Boulevard. Drive south on Sierra Avenue from Foothill Boulevard, then navigate to Tamarind Avenue. The property is private; observe the exterior from the street. The prominent wrought-iron “C” on the chimney is visible from the road.
Time Required
A focused Fontana Route 66 visit — Foothill Boulevard driving tour (Bono’s site, surviving motels, Rose Motel, Dragon Motel), the Al Capone hideout side trip, and a stop at the Auto Club Speedway site (for those interested in the Kaiser Steel history) — requires approximately 2–3 hours. Verify current status of Bono’s Restaurant and the Giant Orange stand before visiting.
Climate
Fontana has a Continental Mediterranean climate — hot and dry summers with cool winters. Summer temperatures can be extreme, frequently exceeding 95°F. The city receives the Santa Ana winds through Cajon Pass in autumn, creating warm, dry conditions that increase wildfire risk. Spring (March–May) and fall (September–November) are the most comfortable visiting seasons.
Dining Near Route 66 in Fontana
Fontana’s Foothill Boulevard has a full range of chain and independent dining. For Route 66 character, the Bono’s Restaurant complex on Foothill Boulevard is worth checking on current status — if operating, it represents one of the highway’s most historically connected dining experiences in this section. Westward in Rancho Cucamonga, the Sycamore Inn offers full-service steakhouse dining in a stagecoach stop that has been serving travelers since 1848.
Nearby Route 66 Highlights in the Inland Empire
The Wigwam Motel, San Bernardino — About 5 miles east on Route 66 at the Rialto/San Bernardino border, Wigwam Village #7 is the National Register landmark with 19 teepee-shaped cabins, the 2005 Cyrus Avery Preservation Award winner, and the inspiration for the Cozy Cone Motel in Pixar’s Cars.
Route 66 in Rialto, California — Just east of Fontana, Rialto’s Route 66 story runs from the 1887 Kansas Colony citrus town through the Wigwam Motel, the El Rey Motel neon, the “Nervous Ned’s” oil derrick gas station legend, and the 1948 Foothill Drive-In Theatre.
Route 66 in San Bernardino, California — About 7 miles east, San Bernardino is home to the Original McDonald’s Museum site and the full Route 66 heritage of the gateway city to California’s Inland Empire.
Route 66 in Rancho Cucamonga, California — Directly west of Fontana, the city with the 1915 Cucamonga Service Station Route 66 Museum (National Register, 2018 Governor’s Preservation Award), California’s oldest winery (Thomas Winery, est. 1839), the Sycamore Inn (since 1848), and the Magic Lamp Inn neon.
Aztec Hotel, Monrovia — About 25 miles west on Route 66, the 1925 National Historic Landmark is the first Mayan Revival architecture building in the United States and one of the most visually extraordinary stops on the Mother Road.
Route 66 in California — Complete Guide — The full overview of all 314 miles of California’s Route 66 from Needles on the Arizona border through the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, Pasadena, and Los Angeles to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.
Route 66 Centennial 2026 — The 100th anniversary of Route 66 is November 11, 2026. Fontana — where the Hells Angels were founded on Route 66 in 1948, where Kaiser Steel transformed the highway corridor, and where Bono’s Giant Orange served juice to Mother Road travelers — is a compelling chapter in the California Centennial story. Check this page for California centennial events.
Route 66 — Complete Guide — The definitive guide to all 2,448 miles of the Mother Road, from the Begin sign in Chicago to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.
