Want to attend my lecture on the same topic at the Orange County Historical Society this Thursday evening (9/14/2023)? CLICK HERE for details.
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
About those Al Capone stories in the Register and Orange Coast magazine...
Sunday, September 10, 2023
OC/Q&A: South Santa Ana Edition
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Diamond School, South Santa Ana, circa late 1890s. |
Q: I've heard the name "Gospel Swamp" applied to areas from Huntington Beach to Garden Grove. Where was it actually located?
A: Today, every neighborhood with a puddle claims it was part of Gospel Swamp, because it's such a great nickname. However, contemporary records indicate that the name was originally and primarily applied to the marshy area at what's now the south end of Santa Ana -- from McFadden Ave. down through the South Coast Metro area. Soon, the name drifted over the Santa Ana River a bit, into parts of Fountain Valley. But no, the name did not apply to such far-flung locales as Westminster Garden Grove, or Huntington Beach.
The name comes from the late 1800s, when frequent evangelist meetings were held for the benefit of the local farmers -- many of whom were Protestants from the South. The locals began to call this rural area "Gospel Swamp" and its residents "Swamp Angels."
Q: A few years ago, they added a big arch over Main Street, just north of Warner Ave., reading "Historic South Main Business District." How did it get there, and why is the area historic?
A: The arch was built in 2007 as part of a redevelopment project. For most of its history, largely Hispanic South Santa Ana centered around the Holly Sugar Factory on Dyer Road. The plant opened in 1912 and was demolished in 1983. Many local residents worked there, and other businesses sprang up to serve them.
The arch itself is a replica of one that stood over Highway 101 near Chapman Ave. before the I-5 Freeway was built.
Q: Nothing says California like palm trees. Where’s the best place in O.C. to appreciate them?
A: South Coast Plaza has an amazing collection of well over 50 varieties of palm trees from all over the world, including rare ones like Howea belmoreana, Rhapis excelsa, and Dypsis leptocheilos. Rows of Cuban royal palms along Bear St. (56 in all) are the only such stands of this species between Florida and Hawaii. The Segerstrom family, who owns the mall, is fond (not frond) of palms and even planted an additional 100 trees to honor the centennial anniversary of their family's arrival in Orange County.
If you go on a palm jungle scavenger hunt, be sure to check every nook and cranny, including parking lots, road medians, and the wing formerly known as “Crystal Court.” Adventure awaits! But unlike most tropical safaris, you should worry more about texting drivers than venomous snakes.
Thursday, September 07, 2023
OC/Q&A: Wildlife Edition
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A magic lantern slide image of a California condor, 1900 (Courtesy San Jose Public Library) |
Q: Are there any California Condors in Orange County?
A: There have been no confirmed sightings of California condors in Orange County in about a century. But this largest of all North American birds - with a 10-foot wingspan - was once common here. In the 1980s the last 22 condors were captured for a breeding program. More than 200 are in the wild again, but they're still endangered. Once, the condors were decimated by poisoning by ranchers and hunting. Today, habitat destruction, lead poisoning (from eating bullet-riddled animal carcasses), power lines, and "green" wind turbines are their downfalls. Still, they're rebounding, so watch the skies for enormous ugly birds.
Q: What are the strangest animals native to Orange County?
A: Not counting the two-legged kind? Well, historian Jim Sleeper passed along a story about blind fish that lived in the underground lakes and peat springs deep below what’s now Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, and the southern end of Santa Ana. (Not to be confused with the infamous “blind mullet” of Newport Harbor.) These fish were occasionally brought up from deep wells. No more than two inches long, the species had lived in total darkness for so long that it gradually de-evolved to having no eyes.
Frankly, the Fountain Valley Blind Fish makes a more memorable team name for Fountain Valley High School than the rather conventional Barons.
Q: If possums aren't native to California, why are they in my yard?
A: The possum, a native of the Southeast, was first introduced into California near L.A., around 1890. Homesick Southerners continued to bring more possums into the state up through the 1930s, both as food and as a source of cheap fur. Often, possums escaped, and soon these adaptable and prolific omnivores ranged across much of the state. Around 1900, Santa Margarita Ranch superintendent Bill Magee introduced possums to the Santa Ana Mountains when he turned loose a pair he'd purchased from a circus in Capistrano. The marsupial in your persimmon tree is likely their distant relative.
Tuesday, September 05, 2023
OC/Q&A: Weather Edition
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Snow at Valencia High School, Placentia, 1949 (Courtesy Placentia Library District) |
Q: Has Orange County ever had a snowfall that covered the whole county?
A: That last occurred on January 11, 1949. The foothills got about five inches of snow, but most of the county got less. Tustin historian Juanita Louvret writes, "You had to work hard to gather enough snow to make a decent snowman."
Still, Orange County looked like a winter wonderland, and almost everyone with a camera photographed their suddenly transformed neighborhoods.
Prior to 1949, you have to go back to Jan. 12, 1882 to find a record of another significant snowfall here.
Widespread snowfall was reported by some locals March 1, 2023, but those better acquainted with cold weather recognized it as “graupel” -- tiny wads of slush, not snowflakes. The graupel melted almost instantly upon touching the ground.
Q: Was the 1938 Flood the worst in O.C.’s history?
A: In terms of deaths (more than 50) and property damage, 1938 was our worst natural disaster. But for sheer volume of water, January 1862 brought us the ultimate frog-strangler. Historian Jim Sleeper wrote that the peak flow through Santa Ana Canyon in 1862 was “320,000 cubic feet per second, compared with 100,000 in 1938...” The Western half of Orange County became an extension of the ocean for a while. Luckily, there was hardly anyone around in 1862 to complain about it.
Q: With no groundhogs in Orange County, what signs of nature predict our local weather?
A: Local Indians once believed that gophers relocating their burrows to higher ground was a sign of an approaching rainy season. According to historian Jim Sleeper, the early pioneers had innumerable "sure signs" -- from heavy acorn growth, to whales hugging the coast, to maple leaves all turning color at once. These methods were all as dependable as ol' Punxsutawney Phil.
Monday, September 04, 2023
San Juan Capistrano, 1860-1960
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Mission San Juan Capistrano, 1865 (Edward Vischer) |
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Gen. Andres Pico, circa 1850 (Courtesy Seaver Center) |
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Map of California (detail), 1868 (A. C. Frey & Louis Nell) |
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Marcos Forster and family (Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library) |
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San Juan viewed from the hills west of Rio Trabuco, circa.1887. (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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San Juan Capistrano's second Santa Fe depot, 1890s (Courtesy OC Parks) |
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Judge Richard Egan (Courtesy SJC Historical Soc.) |
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DiseƱo map for Boca de la Playa, circa 1846. Clear as mud. (Courtesy Phil Brigandi) |
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Fr. Joseph Mut (Courtesy SJC Historical Soc.) |
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C. F. Lummis (center) at Mission San Juan Capistrano, circa 1904 (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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San Juan Hot Springs (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Monsignor St. John O'Sullivan, 1934 (Courtesy University of Southern California) |
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The Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Postcard depicting swallows' mud nests at Mission San Juan Capistrano. |
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Mission Pageant poster, 1924 |
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Tour guide at Mission San Juan Capistrano, circa 1930s (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Chief Clarence Lobo |
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Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, circa 1959 (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Aerial view of San Juan Capistrano, 1959 (Courtesy O.C. Archives) |
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Orange County Historical Society members at Los Rios District, 2016 (Author's photo) |
Friday, September 01, 2023
OC/Q&A: Agriculture Edition
Q: I'm told Huntington Beach had an indoor mushroom farm. True?Ocean View Mushroom Growers. (Photo courtesy Mary Urashima)
A: There was, indeed, fungus among us. Ocean View Mushroom Growers had 36 dark, air-conditioned growing houses full of compost and mushrooms. The compost was made from a pungent blend of race track bedding, wine residue, cow belly and chicken manure, and pickers wore lighted miners’ helmets so they could work in near-darkness. Owner Victor Di Stefano, grew up around the mushroom business in Pennsylvania and, after serving part of his WWII Navy hitch in Southern California, decided to settle here and go into the business himself. By the mid-1950s he’d settled on a parcel on Golden West St., north of Ellis Ave. He had 220,000 square feet of growing space, and a good crop yielded five pounds of mushrooms per square foot. When the farm shut down in the 1980s, the city began a long battle to acquire the property. A lot of locals who were used to the farm’s smell had to hold their noses for the gross construction/development expenditures for the city Sports Complex that replaced it.
Q: Was Orange County ever a wine region?
A: The padres at Mission San Juan Capistrano grew “mission grapes” for a dessert-type wine, some of the Ranchos had vines, and the Los Angeles Vineyard Society founded Anaheim in the 1850s as a vineyard and winemaking colony. But the industry ground to a halt in 1885, when a Pierce’s Disease wiped out most of the vines. But occasionally, hobbyists or entrepreneurs would make wine from non-local grapes. My favorite local label (not the wine, I just like the labels) was Trabuco Loud Mouth, made in Holy Jim Canyon until a 1980 brush fire destroyed the wine press. Today, a handful of local winemakers today include the Laguna Canyon Winery, Newport Beach Vineyards & Winery, Hamilton Oaks Vineyard in Trabuco Canyon, and the Pozzuoli Vineyard & Winery in Tustin.
Q: Was the Hass avocado really developed in La Habra?
A: Almost. This most popular of all avocado varieties was developed by mailman Rudolph Hass (rhymes with the thing you sit on) in a small grove at his home in La Habra Heights, just over the border into Los Angeles County. All Hass avocado trees today descend from a single seed he planted there in 1926. Rudy's mail route was in La Habra, so some folks assumed his tree was located there too. The mother tree finally died and was cut down in 2002.
Thursday, August 24, 2023
OC/Q&A: Huntington Beach
Helme-Worthy House (right) and M.E. Helme Furniture Co. Building (left) prior the construction of The Strand.
Q: What are those old buildings that are now nearly surrounded by The Strand shopping center in Downtown Huntington Beach?
A: Those buildings are still owned and occupied by the descendants of the man who put them there: Matthew E. Helme, a furniture dealer, Socialist, and one of the town's original councilmen. His efforts helped bring paved roads, streetlights, a modern fire department, municipal gas and water systems, and cityhood to Huntington Beach. His house, at 6th and Walnut, was originally built at 5th St. and Euclid in Santa Ana around 1880. He used mules to roll the house on logs to its current location in 1903. The following year, he built the M.E. Helme Furniture Co. building behind the house. In a city that's bulldozed most of its history, it's heartwarming to know these buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places and are currently (if slowly) being restored.
Q: Why do locals call Golden West College "UBL?"
A: Until about 15 years ago, there was a large discount furniture store between the college and Edinger Avenue. "UBL" stands for "University Behind Levitz." Plenty of other institutions of higher learning have similarly cheeky nicknames. Santa Ana College is "UCSB:" the "University of California at Seventeenth and Bristol." And some say "UCI" stands for "Under Construction Indefinitely." Yours truly transferred from Tangerine Tech (Orange Coast College) to Cal State Disneyland (CSU Fullerton).
Q: The Huntington Beach 4th of July Parade is great, but the crowds can be terrible. How do we solve this?
A: We could take a tip from the Huntington Beach Fish Parade of 1926. The brainchild of City Councilman E. B. Stevens, this fishing-themed parade wound 85 miles through the county, reaching La Habra, Olive (the north end of Orange), and even over the county line into Norwalk. The parade's bathing beauties, bigwigs, and bands -- all piled into open-topped vehicles -- were undoubtedly frazzled by the end of the day. But there were plenty of good seats available along the route.
Friday, June 30, 2023
Unusual names from Orange County's past
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Ulysses Goates, Knott's Berry Farm employee, 1950s. |
- W. H. Tinklepaugh (Robbed the Fox Fullerton Theatre in 1929. Pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity)
- Eltha Mustard, Geneva Mustard, and Biney Mustard (Family lived in Santa Ana, 1930s-'40s)
- Carbon Petroleum Dubbs (Lived on Easter Hill, North Tustin)
- Girtha Edith Ostrander (Mother of Sondra Myracle of Orange)
- Euphrates Hare (Westminster pioneer)
- Thelma Blackbeard (Lived in Newport Heights)
- Gertie Gurney (Property owner in La Habra)
- Noah Counts (La Habra resident)
- Beaver Goodykoontz (WWI veteran from Villa Park area)
- Ulysses S. Lemon (Longtime local newspaper publisher. Died in Fullerton in 1929)
- Floddie Moan (Los Angeles resident and sister of Melchi W. Hart and Stella Organ)
- Stella Organ (Daughter of Santa Ana's Harris Hart)
- Dummer Kiah Trask (Lived 1860-1914. Trask Avenue is named for him.)
- Melvin C. Roach (Married in O.C. around 1928)
- Rev. Myrna C. Cronic (Preached in Anaheim in 1939)
- Dick Biggins (Acting Clerk of West Orange County Municipal Court, 1981)
- Stephen A. Rumps (O.C. Sheriff's Deputy until Jan. 1983)
- Farnum Phipps
- Minnie Clynick (Santa Ana resident, circa 1930s-1960s)
- Delbert & Dimple Kerley (married couple, lived in Santa Ana in 1930s)
- Thomas Twaddle (San Bernardino resident, as of 1890)
- Noah Cheatum (Contractor working on San Clemente in 1962)
- Fanny Sparks (Phil Brigandi observed, "That's one of the side effects of Olestra.")