Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura metropolitan area

Ventura County, California
County
County of Ventura
Images, from top down, left to right: Ventura City Hall in Old Town Ventura, Ojai Arcade in Ojai, a view of Camarillo, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Point Mugu
Seal
Location in the state of California
California's location in the United States
Country	United States
State	California
Region	California Central Coast
Established	March 22, 1872
County seat	Ventura
Largest city	Oxnard (population) Thousand Oaks (area)
Area
• Total	2,208 sq mi (5,720 km2)
• Land	1,843 sq mi (4,770 km2)
• Water	365 sq mi (950 km2)
Highest elevation	8,835 ft (2,693 m)
Population (April 1, 2010)
• Total	823,318
• Estimate (2015)	850,536
• Density	370/sq mi (140/km2)
Time zone	Pacific Time Zone (UTC−8)
• Summer (DST)	Pacific Daylight Time (UTC−7)
Area codes	805, 747/818
FIPS code	06-111
GNIS feature ID	277320
Website	www.countyofventura.org

Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 823,318. The county seat is Ventura.

Ventura County comprises the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area. It is also considered the southernmost county along the California Central Coast.

Ventura County was historically inhabited by the Chumash people, who also settled much of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, with their presence dating back 10,000-12,000 years. The Chumash were hunter-gatherers, fishermen, and also traders with the Mojave, Yokuts, and Tongva Indians. The Chumash are also known for their rock paintings and for their great basketry. Chumash Indian Museum in Thousand Oaks has several reconstructed Chumash houses (‘apa) and there are several Chumash pictographs in the county, including the Burro Flats Painted Cave in Simi Valley. The plank canoe, called a tomol in Chumash, was important to their way of life. Canoe launching points on the mainland for trade with the Chumash of the Channel Islands were located at the mouth of the Ventura River, Mugu Lagoon and Point Hueneme. This has led to speculations among archeologists of whether the Chumash could have had a pre-historic contact with Polynesians. According to diachronic linguistics, certain words such as tomolo’o (canoe) could be related to Polynesian languages. The dialect of the Chumash language that was spoken in Ventura County was Ventureño.