Artesia (Spanish for “artesian aquifer”) is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, California. Artesia was incorporated upon May 29, 1959, and is one of Los Angeles County’s Gateway Cities. The city has a 2010 census population of 16,522. Artesia is surrounded upon the west, south, and east sides by Cerritos, with Norwalk to the north. Artesia is the house of the East West Ice Palace, an ice rink which is co-owned by Michelle Kwan. It was with the childhood home of former First Lady Pat Nixon, who lived there from 1914 to 1931, though the property on which she grew taking place is now allowance of neighboring Cerritos.

The village of Artesia was established upon the achievement of the Artesia School District upon May 3, 1875. It was named for the many flowing artesian wells in the area, which made the village ideal for cultivation 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 gone many additional cities in the region, Artesia was pressured by developers to construct residential tracts. The city of Dairy Valley was incorporated in 1956, and forward-looking became the city of Cerritos. As the request for housing continued, dairymen moved their operations additional east into Chino and north into the Central Valley. Artesia finally incorporated upon May 29, 1959.

Before Artesia was incorporated, some rural areas, like Hawaiian Gardens, were considered part of Artesia for mapping and postage purposes.