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Oxnard is the 113th largest city in the United States, 19th largest city in California and largest city in Ventura County, California with population of 197,899. It is located at the western edge of the fertile Oxnard Plain, and is an important agricultural center, with its distinction as the strawberry and lima bean capital of California. Founded in 1903, it is the most populous city in the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metropolitan area.
Oxnard is also a major transportation hub in Southern California, with Amtrak, Union Pacific, Metrolink, Greyhound, and Intercalifornia stopping in Oxnard.
The Oxnard Plain is well-known for its strawberries. According to the USDA, Oxnard is California’s largest strawberry producer, supplying about one-third of the State's annual strawberry volume. From the end of September through the end of October, strawberries are planted and harvesting occurs from mid-December through mid-July in Oxnard. The peak harvesting season in California runs from April through June, when up to 10 million pint baskets of strawberries are shipped daily. The state of California supplies over 85 percent of U.S. strawberries, with the U.S. supplying for a quarter of total world production of strawberries.
Each year Oxnard hosts the California Strawberry Festival during the summer at Oxnard College, featuring vendors as well as food items based on the fruit such as strawberry nachos, strawberry pizza, strawberry funnel cake, strawberry sundaes, and strawberry champagne.
The city of Oxnard is home to over 20 miles (32 km) of scenic, relatively uncrowded coastline. The beaches in Oxnard are large and the sand is exceptionally soft. The sand dunes in Oxnard, which were once much more extensive, have been used to recreate Middle-Eastern desert dunes in many movies, the first being The Sheik with Rudolph Valentino. There are very few rocks or driftwood piles at most beaches, but Oxnard is known to have dangerous rip-currents at certain beaches. Oxnard is home to world-class surf at most of its beaches, but some people tend to stay away due to its history of localism.
Beaches in Oxnard include: Mugu Rock State Beach, Ormond Beach, Hueneme Beach, Silver Strand Beach, Hollywood Beach, Hollywood-By-the-Sea, Mandalay Beach, Oxnard State Beach, Oxnard Shores, 5th Street Beach, McGrath State Beach and Rivermouth Beach.
Oxnard offers several cultural institutions. These include the Carnegie Art Museum, founded in 1907 as the Oxnard Public Library by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie; the Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife, founded by the late Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler, which housed the largest collection of rare and vintage automobiles in the nation until the contents were auctioned off following Chandler's death in 2006; the Murphy Auto Museum, founded by neurosurgeon Dan Murphy; The Heritage Square, a collection of restored Victorian and Craftsman houses which were once owned by Oxnard ’s pioneer families (Heritage Square is also home to the Petit Playhouse and Oxnard ’s award-winning Elite Theatre Company; the Ventura County Maritime Museum;The Gull Wings Children's Museum: The Henry T. Oxnard Historic District the Herzog Winery and wine cellar, the nation's largest collection of fine kosher wines; the Seabee Museum and the The Oxnard Performing Arts and Convention Center, home to the New West Symphony. It is also home to the award winning Oxnard Independent Film Festival and, since 2010, the annual Channel Islands Tall Ships Festival.
