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Artesia is a general law city in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States and is one of the county's Gateway Cities. It was incorporated on May 29, 1959. The population was 16,380 at the 2000 census. Artesia is surrounded on the west, south, and east sides by Cerritos, with Norwalk to the north.

Artesia is the home of the East West Ice Palace, an ice rink which is co-owned by Michelle Kwan. It was also the childhood home (1914 until 1931) of former First Lady Pat Nixon, though the house in which she grew up is now part of neighboring Cerritos.

History

The village of Artesia was established upon the completion of the Artesia School District on May 3, 1875. It was named for the many flowing Artesian wells in the area, which made the village ideal for farming and agriculture.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Dutch and Portuguese farmers developed Artesia into one of the most important dairy districts in Southern California. After World War II, as with many other cities in the region, Artesia was pressured by developers to build residential tracts. The city of Dairy Valley was incorporated in 1956, and later became the city of Cerritos. As the demand for housing continued, dairymen moved their operations further east into Chino and north into the Central Valley. Artesia finally incorporated on May 29, 1959.

In 1993, the Artesia Historical Society was formed, with the mission of preserving and protecting the archives and historic sites of the city. In 2002, the Historical Society salvaged and restored one of the last remaining Spanish styled homes in the city into a historical civic museum open to the public. [1]