By Dr. Roger Li, local Pleasanton dentist – April 3, 2017
You already know that Pleasanton, CA is a fantastic place to live. You know that it’s a great place to shop and work (and to see your dentist). You know it’s a fantastic town in which to have a good time.
But we bet at least a few of these quirky facts are things you DIDN’T know about our amazing community.
1) The town was meant to be named after Union army cavalry Major General Alfred Pleasonton, with two O’s, but a U.S. Postal Service employee made a typo and Pleasanton was born!
2) Pleasanton was preceded by a town called Alisal, known as “The Most Desperate Town in the West.” In 1894, it became part of Pleasanton.
3) The town was once home to Phoebe Apperson Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst, the media magnate who was spoofed in Orson Welles’ film classic “Citizen Kane.”
4) The highest recorded temperature in Pleasanton history was an astounding 115 degrees, recorded in September of 1950.
5) The space occupied by Comerica Bank at 600 Main Street had previously been a hardware store for over 100 years. It closed its doors in 2004.
6) George Hearst, U.S. Senator and father of William Randolph Hearst, once planned to locate a race horse farm here.
7) In 2009, Newsmax named Pleasanton one of the Top 25 “Most Uniquely American Cities and Towns” in the United States.
8) The top employer in Pleasanton is Kaiser Permanente, a managed care consortium that employs nearly 4,000 people in the region.
9) The Pleasanton Fairgrounds Racetrack at Alameda County Fairgrounds is the oldest horse racing track in the United States.
10) Registered voters in town are almost evenly split, 32.1% registered as Republicans, 38.4% as Democrats. The remaining are Decline to State.
11) The crossroads of I-580 and I-680 actually mirror the crossroads of Native American trade routes in the region, but this was not discovered until the 20th Century.
12) Both of Pleasanton’s two high schools have been ranked among the top 400 high schools in the nation by Newsweek.
13) Pleasanton has three sister cities: Blairgowrie and Rattray, Scotland, UK; Canada Fergus, Canada; and Mexico Tulancingo, Mexico. And yes, “sister cities” is an actual political and diplomatic designation.
14) The Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department has the Centennial Light, the world’s longest lasting light bulb, at 4550 East Avenue in Livermore. It has been lit for an astonishing 113 years.
We’ve always enjoyed being located here, but knowing this facts makes us even happier to call Pleasanton home.
