Apple Valley, California

The Town of Apple Valley is located in the Victor Valley of San Bernardino County, in the U.S. state of California. It was incorporated on November 14, 1988, and is one of the twenty-two incorporated municipalities in California that uses "town" in its name instead of "city". As of 2006 the population was estimated to be 67,507. The town is 10 miles (20 km) east of neighboring Victorville, 37 miles (60 km) south of Barstow and 46 miles (74 km) north of San Bernardino through the Cajon Pass.

In the early 1900s, resident Ursula M. Poates planted three apple trees in her yard to help convince prospective land-owners that fruit could be grown in this part of the Mojave Desert. She called the area Apple Valley and the name was officially recognized when a post office was established in 1949.

Apple Valley is governed by a town council, whose 2007 mayor is Rick Roelle. The Mayor changes each December by a vote of the five-member Council.

Apple Valley was home to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, whose museum was first established in Apple Valley (in 1967) before the museum was relocated to Victorville in 1976. Since 2003 the museum has been in Branson, Missouri, United States and was moved there because the Town Council in 2003 would not allow it to continue to be there for reasons that never have been fully known. Apple Valley is the final resting place for both Roy and Dale. There are reminders of the Rogers everywhere one turns including roads and highways. Roy and Dale created St. Hillary's Episcopal Church, founded a home for boys, a juvenile detention center and while they were living took in some 20-40 children and raised them as their own.

Apple Valley was also where most location filming was done for the Sky King TV series in the late 1950s.

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