Incorporated: 1857

Area: 18 square miles

Population: 51,797

Median family income: $45,911

City Hall: (909) 370-5099

Chamber of commerce: (909) 825-2222

Colton Joint Unified School District: (909) 580-5000

Rialto Unified School District: (909) 820-7700

San Bernardino County Office of Education School District: (909) 386-2784

Fire Department non-emergency line: (909)

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, Colton. (Courtesy photo)

Police Department non-emergency line: (909) 370-5000

Colton Joint Unified School District operates 10 public elementary schools, one middle school, three high schools and one seventh-12th grade academy in the city.

Rialto Unified School District has one public middle school in the city.

The San Bernardino County Office of Education School District runs one independent alternative school, and one community day school in the city.

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
Address: 400 N. Pepper Ave., Colton
Information: (909) 580-1000

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center opened in 1999 as a replacement to the county hospital on Gilbert Street in San Bernardino. Hospital officials tout it as "one of the most modern and safe hospitals in the world."

Because the hospital sits near two major fault lines, it was built to withstand an 8.3-magnitude earthquake and can remain self-sustaining for at least 72 hours.

With an annual operating budget of $348 million, Arrowhead Regional is one of 24 public hospitals in California that make up the state's medical "safety net."

"We're the county's only public hospital, and that's important because that essentially means we provide health-care services to anybody, regardless of their ability to pay, immigration status and so forth," hospital spokesman Jorge Valencia cq said.

The hospital has the only trauma center in San Bernardino and Riverside counties currently verified by the American College of Surgeons. It treats more than 120,000 patients a year.

In addition, the hospital's Edward G. Hirschman Burn Center is the only burn center covering the four counties of San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo and Mono. Its doctors treat about 600 patients a year, and close to a third of those patients are children.

Recently, the hospital embarked on a major expansion project that will bring an additional 84 patient beds. The $30 million expansion, approved in 2006 by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, will occur on the hospital's sixth floor and is expected to be completed in about two years, Valencia said.

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center employs about 2,700 full-time county employees, plus contract employees including 80 full-time attending physicians, 300 part-time attending physicians and 100 allied health professionals including physicians assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives. More than 7 percent of hospital employees are Colton residents, Valencia said.

Fiesta Village
Address: 1405 E. Washington St.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Water slides open from mid-May through mid-September.

Fiesta Village is Colton's only amusement park, featuring miniature golf, batting cages and an arcade, on more than 10 acres south of Interstate 215.

The park opened in 1971, and aside from its two miniature golf courses, there's race cars and carnival rides, including a Tilt-A-Whirl, giant slide and the Busy Bears and Sizzler rides.

Adding to the fun is an outdoor skating rink, water slides in the summer months and laser tag, said park president Michelle Kapuscinski cq.

More recently, a new attraction has been added: Animaland. Kids can craft their own stuffed animals by selecting an animal of their choice. They stuff and dress them, then get to adopt them and take them home, Kapuscinski said.

And of course, you can't have an amusement park without good food.

"One thing that's unique about us is we have two full fledged restaurants on site, Nicolodeon Pizza and Taco Joe's," Kapuscinski said.

Slover Mountain
Address: 695 S. Rancho Ave., Colton

Just south of Interstate 10 off Rancho Avenue, it's impossible to miss Slover Mountain. An American flag sits firmly planted atop the limestone hill, home to the California Portland (Cal Portland) Cement Company.

Slover Mountain was named after Isaac Slover, a hunter and fur trapper who was killed by a bear in the Cajon Pass in 1854. He settled on the south slope of the mountain in 1841 or 1842 and built a cabin.

American Indians who inhabited the area long before Slover called the limestone wonder "Tahualtapa" or "The Hill of the Ravens," and the Spaniards called it "Cerrito Solo," meaning "The Little Hill That Stands Alone," according to a Cal Portland news release.

It was later learned that marble could be quarried from the mountain, but the marble was exhausted by 1887.

Since Cal Portland started extracting limestone from the mountain to manufacture cement in 1894, the hill has been steadily dwindling in scale.

Former cement plant manager Thomas Fleming was responsible for the flag that has fluttered atop the hill since 1917.

"The story goes, he went to the Chicago World's Fair, saw the flag there when they unfurled it at night with lights and everything," said Gary Thornberry cq, Cal Portland's environmental plant services manager. "And so he came back here and said he wanted to put a flag on the mountain."

After receiving Congressional approval, the 30-foot by 20-foot flag was raised July 4, 1917. The next day, a headline in the San Bernardino Sun read: "Unfurling of Colton's Liberty Flag is a Wondrous Spectacle."

At the time, Mount Slover was one of only three locales in the United States where Old Glory flew around the clock. The other two locations were the White House and the gravesite of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the Star Spangled Banner, Thornberry said.

Agua Mansa Cemetery
Address: 2001 W. Agua Mansa Road
Hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; first Sunday of every month, noon to 3 p.m.
Information or group tours: (909) 307-2669, ext. 240

Dotted with weathered and worn grave markers crafted from wood and marble, the Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery serves as the final resting place for the area's first settlers.

It is all that remains of the once-thriving communities of Agua Mansa and La Placita, which sat across from each other along the Santa Ana River. They were the first non-native settlements in the San Bernardino Valley and had the first church and school, according to information posted on the San Bernardino County Museum's Web site. The museum has overseen cemetery operations since 1967.

About 2,000 pioneers are buried in the cemetery, and about 1,000 of them have been identified, said Michelle Nielsen cq, cemetery curator. She said the cemetery's first burial was in 1852 and its last burial in 1963.

A commemorative grave marker for early settler Isaac Slover, a hunter and fur trapper for whom the nearby Slover Mountain is named, is at the cemetery. But it is uncertain if Slover was actually interred at the cemetery, Nielsen said.

Many descendants of the pioneers buried at Agua Mansa are still living in the area, Nielsen said.

Colton Area Museum
Address: 380 N. La Cadena Drive
Hours: 1-4 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays
Information; (909) 824-8814

With its temple style, Classical Revival architecture, the Colton Area Museum and former Carnegie public library is "the only example of public architecture of its period remaining in Colton," according to the Carnegie Libraries of California Web site.

Built in 1908 with a $10,000 grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, the museum and former library celebrates its centennial anniversary this year.

It opened to the public on Nov. 11, 1908, Colton historian Larry Sheffield said.

In 1982, the city built a new public library at the corner of Ninth and D streets. The Carnegie building was renovated and opened as a museum in 1992, Sheffield said.

In 1988, the museum was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

About 1,200 people visit the museum annually, which features a large exhibit of Earp family memorabilia.

Most are familiar with the Earp family from the historic "Showdown at the O.K. Corral" on Oct. 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Ariz., when Earp brothers Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan joined with Doc Holliday in a deadly gunfight.

Virgil Earp was the first city marshal of Colton when the city incorporated in 1887, Sheffield said.

He said the museum also features a collection of items illustrating the city's citrus heritage, a collection of women's dresses from the late 1890s to early 1900s and other apparel.

BEST KEPT SECRET: Jean's French Restaurant
Address: 592 N. La Cadena Drive
Hours: Tuesdays through Fridays, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 to 9 p.m. ; closed Sundays and Mondays.
Information: (909) 825-0905, or visit www.irola.net

Even if you can't pronounce the names of its entrees, you can't beat the cordial, cozy atmosphere and exotic cuisine at Jean's French Restaurant.

The small, unassuming restaurant on the southeast corner of La Cadena Drive and E Street, across from City Hall, opened in January 1965 and has been a popular mainstay ever since.

People come from all over the valley to dine, said restaurant owner Jean Irola cq. He said he doesn't advertise, and that his family business has thrived for more than 40 years on word of mouth.

"You go in there and you feel like you're in another country," said Colton Second District City Councilman Richard DeLaRosa.

He said he takes his wife to Jean's on Valentine's Day and took his mother and mother-in-law there once for Mother's Day.

"They loved it. They didn't eat the frog legs or the snails, but my mother had a roasted hen dish and she loved it," DeLaRosa said.

"The menu's quite different from your regular surroundings here," said Irola, adding that few French restaurants currently exist in the San Bernardino Valley.

Bon appetite!