Before the arrival of Europeans, the area that is now Oxnard was inhabited by Chumash Native Americans. The first European to encounter the area was Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who claimed it for Spain in 1542. During the mission period, it was serviced by the Mission San Buenaventura, established in 1782.
Ranching began to take hold among Californio settlers, who lost their regional influence when California became a U.S. state in 1850. At about the same time, the area was settled by American farmers, who cultivated barley and lima beans.
Henry Oxnard, who operated a successful sugar beet factory with his three brothers (Ben, James, and Robert) in Chino, California, was enticed to build a two-million dollar factory on the plain inland from Port Hueneme. Shortly after the 1897 beet campaign, a new town soon emerged. Ironically, the Oxnard brothers never lived in their namesake city, and they sold both the Chino and the giant red-brick Oxnard factory with its landmark twin smokestacks in 1899 for nearly four-million dollars. The Oxnard factory operated from August 19, 1899 until October 26, 1959. Given the growth of the town of Oxnard, in the spring of 1898, a railroad station was built to service the plant, which attracted a population of Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican laborers and enough commerce to merit the designation of a town. Oxnard intended to name the settlement after the Greek word for "sugar"..."zachari", but frustrated by bureaucracy, named it after himself.
Oxnard, 1908. The public library is at the right. Oxnard was incorporated as a California city on June 30,1903, and the public library was opened in 1907, one of only three built west of the Mississippi river financed by Andrew Carnegie. Prior to and during World War II, the naval bases of Point Mugu and Port Hueneme were established in the area to take advantage of the only major navigable port on California's coast between the Port of Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay, and these encouraged the development of the defense-based aerospace and communications industries.
In the mid-century Oxnard grew and developed the areas outside the downtown with homes, industry, retail, and a new harbor named Channel Islands Harbor. Martin V. ("Bud") Smith (1916-2001) became the most influential developer in the history of Oxnard during this time. Smith's first enterprise in 1941 was the Colonial House Restaurant (demolished 1988) and then the Wagon Wheel Junction in 1947. He was also involved in the development of the high-rise towers at the Topa Financial Plaza, the Channel Islands Harbor, Casa Sirena Resort, the Esplanade Shopping Mall, Fisherman's Wharf, the Carriage Square Shopping Center, the Maritime Museum, and many other major hotel, restaurant and retail projects.
In June 2004, the Oxnard Police Department and the Ventura County Sheriff imposed a gang injunction over a 6.6-square-mile (17 km2) area of the central district of the city, in order to restrict gang activity. The injunction was upheld in the Ventura County Superior Court and made a permanent law in 2005. A similar injunction was imposed in September, 2006 over a 4.26-square-mile (11.0 km2) area of the south side of the city.