A chili January in Orange County

People today don't always think of peppers as one of Orange County's historically important crops, but they certainly were. At the industry's peak, in 1930, O.C. produced 9,433 tons of peppers!
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Today's photos show a chili pepper drying plant in Huntington Beach in January 1947. The images come from the Bob Geivet collection at the Old Courthouse Museum, and are marked "E.C. Fogal," who I assume might be the plant's owner.

Note the pallets full of peppers being stacked in the photo above, and the dehydrator that stack was placed into in the photo below. Charles E. Utt of Tustin invented the first "chili house dehydrator" around 1905. (It was a variation on his earlier peanut dehydrator, which had burned down.) Previously, peppers had been dried in the sun. Little, if anything, of our once-impressive chili pepper empire still remains today. Housing tracts and strip malls cover most of the fields where they once were grown. Today, asking around for chili peppers in Orange County will get you pointed toward a grocery store or to the excellent Chili Pepper restaurant in Orange.

(Tip of the hat to Jim Sleeper's Orange County Almanac of Historical Oddities for some of these peppery facts.)

Casino San Clemente rides again!

Let's start 2010 with some good news. Not only has the old Casino San Clemente (1937) been saved from destruction, but the new owners are turning it back into the kind of dancing and dining venue it once was. And better yet, they're consulting with the San Clemente Historical Society to make sure they get it right! (Asking local historians for advice on matters relating to local history?!? What a crazy idea!) Their grand re-opening was a big New Year's Eve party.
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Kudos to both the S.C. Historical Society and LAB Holdings, LLC for saving this colorful part of Orange County's past!
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I apologize for the crummy image above, but for some reason it's the only photo of the Casino I could beg, borrow, or (in this case) steal on relatively short notice.

Welcome to 2010

Here's the cover of January 1952 issue of the The Knotty Post (the Knott's Berry Farm employee magazine) to ring in the new year. I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2010!

Huntington Beach centennial and book

To round out Huntington Beach's centennial year, I'm posting a few photos from 1908, the year before it incorporated as a city. No, I don't know who these people are, but aren't these some great images?

Yes, those are sugar beets in the wagon shown above. Note the dog riding atop the beets.

Joe Santiago (the guy who owns the historic Charles Warner house, and who now has the Manning House hovering over his garage,) writes to tell us that signed copies of his book, Ebb & Flow: 100 Years of Huntington Beach, are available "at California Greetings on Main and Orange Streets downtown for only $12, or unsigned at DeGuelle Glass on Adams and Alabama for only $10."

Frohliche Weihnachten

Merry Christmas to all my readers!
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Today's photo shows the Gunther family children and some of their friends in Orange on Christmas Day, 1907. A new bicycle, a new wagon, and a new doll! Gee!

Knott's Preserved and Tustin's Broadmoor Homes

Just when I thought I was done with Knott's, something else really cool turns up. Knott's Berry Farm historian Christopher Merritt writes,

"I finally got my website - KnottsPreserved.com - up and running. It's ostensibly to promote the book, which is coming out this March - but even more, to show many of the images that were cut from the book due to size limitations. Trying to fit 90 years of history into a 144-page book will do that! ...I will be adding more [to the site] as time allows...

"I also have a blog,... The first entry tells you the background on how this project came to be... This is the page to bookmark and check on every so often to learn what is going on with the book.

"Be sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of [each] page. At the bottom, I am trying to include excerpts from many of the interviews I have done over the years, and some of the recordings in my collection."

To go along with Chris' news, I posted a photo of Knott's old Church of Reflections at the top of today's post. The image below is a close-up from the same photo, showing the Christmas decor (circa the 1960s) in more detail.
To add a little color to today's post, I'm also tacking on this 1966 image, (below), of the Chicken Dinner Restaurant/shopping area of Knott's. Notice the guys on ladders in the background, putting up Christmas decorations.

On very interesting but unrelated note, Kathy Hall recently wrote to let us know about her "website dedicated to the history and architecture of the Broadmoor Homes tract in central Tustin. ...A grass roots effort has formed among some of the residents to encourage the restoration and preservation of these classic midcentury modern houses. Our community was featured in Atomic Ranch Magazine last spring."

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These homes were built in the late sixties and reflect that era in California Modernism. Thanks for sharing this with us, Kathy!

Christmas in Huntington Beach, 1950

This nativity scene was part of the civic Christmas decor in Huntington Beach in 1950. You can see a bit of the Pavilion (a.k.a. the Pav-a-lon) behind the palm fronds. Duke's restaurant now stands at this location.
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This scene was part of the "Forty Miles of Christmas Smiles" decorating contest, which was sponsored each year by the Orange County Coast Association. If I were judging, I think I'd have to mark my hometown down a couple points for that Joseph figure. He looks suspiciously like a female department store manikin. (It also reminds me of that scene in Life of Brian with all the women with fake beards taking part in a stoning.)

Knott's Berry Farm sold to investment group

I'm already WAY beyond my quota for Knott-related posts this year. But how can I ignore the news that Knott's Berry Farm, (along with the rest of the Cedar Fair company,) has been purchased? What will the new owners, Apollo Global Management, do to this historic site? Only time will tell. I hope Apollo realizes what a treasure they have in not only the Farm itself, but in many of the people who work there.
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The image above shows the cover of the Knotty Post employee magazine from December 1953. The photo below shows a Christmas garland being hung on the entrance to Ghost Town in about 1962.
The next photo shows a Christmas billboard for Knott's. It was probably painted by Don Treece, Jerry Nicholson, and the other guys in the sign shop.

It's always a little scary when any historic property gets a new owner -- Especially one we don't know well. And as in similar situations, I await their first move with cautious optimism.