Fontana was founded in 1919 by Azariel Blanchard Miller. The name "fontana" is Italian for fountain or water source, being in close proximity to the Santa Ana River to the east. Within a few years it became an agricultural town of citrus orchards, vineyards and chicken ranches and astride U.S. Route 66 (now known as Foothill Boulevard). The Fontana area was radically transformed during World War II when Henry J. Kaiser built the Kaiser Steel plant, at the time one of only two steel mills west of the Mississippi River outside the city limits. To provide for the plant workers' health needs, Henry J. Kaiser constructed the Fontana Kaiser Permanente medical facility, now the largest managed care organization in the United States.