Kumeyaay Village of Ystagua Before European contact, Sorrento Valley was home to a
Kumeyaay village then known as Ystagua (pronounced "istawa") meaning 'worm's (larvae) house' in the
Kumeyaay language. The village had been continuously occupied from as early as 1800 BCE, and had a peak population of 200 residents around the year 1700. The village of Ystagua was a major manufacturing, food processing, and trade center in the region, with ample access to shellfish, fish,
game, and wild grasses. The village was arranged with tool manufacturing land use east of what is now Sorrento Valley Road and residential use west of the road around Roselle St. The population of Ystagua had dropped to about 100 residents by 1800 after the spread of European diseases plagued the area.
Neighborhood of Sorrento Valley In the 1880s, the
California Southern Railroad was constructed through the valley to connect
National City and
San Bernardino with Chinese laborers who previously worked on the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s. During the 1912
San Diego free speech fight, vigilantes aligned with police brought arrested members of the
Industrial Workers of the World from the free speech protest in downtown San Diego to Sorrento Valley. Vigilantes subjected these protesters to patriot indoctrination and forced them to kneel in front of the flag and sing the "Star Spangled Banner" in-key, which left an unknown number of IWW members dead or injured. Those that survived the ordeal were forcibly exiled from the City of San Diego under the threat of death. The construction of the
I-5 in the 1960s and 1970s brought industrial and office development into the area, which helped foster a prominent biotech and IT industry. ==Economy==