What happened to Dairy Valley? How LA's top cow city became Cerritos

Do you know the story of L.A.’s milk shed? Long before that famous jingle “Yes Cerritos Auto Square!” took over the crevices of our subconscious, the city of Cerritos was famous for a much different reason: dairy.

Southern California was huge in the industry, primarily in L.A. County. But rising urbanization threatened the farmers’ way of life, who were increasingly being pushed out of their towns. That’s why some came up with an odd idea that mirrored West L.A.’s circus town: form a city to save the cows.

Farmers band together

Before Southern California became today’s urban sprawl, the land was mostly full of agriculture. Among those cropfields were hundreds of dairy farms. There were so many in L.A. County that it earned a reputation as being the biggest “cow county” in the nation.

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The urbanization and housing boom here after World War II forced a lot of dairies to move. Growth was hard to escape, though. As development surged, so did land values, which gave subdividers the edge they needed to force dairy farmers out.

A local dairyman oversees the production line at Mountain View Dairies, Inc. As the bottle lids boasted, the “guaranteed raw milk” was “produced and bottled on the farm.”

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Courtesy Cerritos Library

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City encroachment was also a problem. L.A., Long Beach and other cities were expanding fast, and they had zoning laws that prioritized tract housing and business development over agriculture.

“Zoning and annexation laws having failed to provide needed protection,” one farmer said, “farmers are now fighting fire with fire, or rather, city with city.”

In the 1950s, farmers organized into the Dairymen’s Committee for Incorporation to create a swath of dairy-first cities. That created Orange County’s Dairy City (now Cypress) and Dairyland (La Palma), as well as L.A. County’s only milk town of Dairy Valley (Cerritos).

Churning out a city

The proposed city of Dairy Valley in L.A. County started as 18 square miles that encompassed the town of Artesia, 4,000 residents and 120,000 cows. In 1955, it was an unincorporated area, under the county’s control.

But not everyone wanted to become what some called a “joke” cow city. To rival the farmers’ group, the Dairymen’s Committee for Exclusion formed, arguing that it would be the “laughingstock” of the state because agriculture revenue wouldn’t be enough to support the price tag of running a city.

Despite the opposition, the creation of Dairy Valley won the day. While not a landslide victory, in April 1956, voters approved. The boundaries were shrunk down because Artesia townsfolks wanted to be separate, so the new U-shaped city only covered 8.7 square miles.

Fred Troost, who served as mayor and councilmember on the Dairy Valley/Cerritos City Council in the 1960s, poses by one of the first aerial photos of the fledgling city.

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Courtesy Cerritos Library

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Dairy Valley didn’t look like much. The only community building was the Carmenita School, which doubled as the first City Council meeting place. It had no shopping center and the town center lacked sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

What the Dairy Valley did have was a lot of cows. If you took a stroll in the area, you’d find stainless steel dairies, mechanical milkers and hay stacked throughout. The city started with 325 dairies and more cows than residents. The area became so popular that other farmers tried to join the city later by lobbying for annexation.

“I feel I have no choice in the matter if I want my property to remain dairy land,” said John Hilarides, whose land was being threatened by Lakewood.

Dairy Valley kicks the bucket

For a few years, the Dairy Valley City Council held up its promise to protect farmers. A zoning ordinance prohibited construction of schools and only one house was permitted on every 5 acres of land.

Development was such a non-priority that Dairy Valley didn’t build a city hall until 1960. Leaders worked out of an unincorporated part of the county until they were forced out.

But things began to shift. Some said the nail in the coffin came after a zoning exception was granted to Cerritos College, but the issues were far bigger than that. With rising land values, tax bills were ballooning. Farmers were feeling the pinch. And while L.A. County still topped the U.S. in value of dairy products, agriculture couldn’t keep up with the kind of tax revenue residences and businesses could generate.

Carpenter Bill Crawford works on the framing of Dairy Valley’s new Richard Gahr High School on Artesia Boulevard in June 1964.

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Courtesy Cerritos Library

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Then, the city asked voters about a change in zoning laws that would allow more housing on lots, essentially busting the door open for large-scale development. It passed in March 1965.

Over the next couple of years, the landscape of Dairy Valley changed so much that city leaders and voters decided to ditch the milk, eggs and butter for a name that matched its suburban future. It became Cerritos in January 1967, which is a nod to the local college and the area’s original Spanish land grant.

Ironically, Cerritos was one of the first cities in L.A. County to create large-scale retail areas — such as that iconic Cerritos Auto Square.