Knott's first Halloween Haunt, 1973

Today's images come from the Knott's Berry Farm Collection at the Orange County Archives, and show the first Knott's Halloween Haunt, in 1973. Note that the event ran for only three nights -- not an entire month, like today. Also note, in the photo below, the much shorter lines at the entrance gate.

Today, the Haunt is a juggernaut and brings in much of the theme park's profits for the year. The majority of Knott's backstage warehouse space is filled with Haunt props and equipment, and a surprisingly large portion of the year is spent preparing for this lucrative event.

In the photo above, two of Knott's roving "monsters" take a break backstage. That's the least menacing Frankenstein's Monster I've ever seen. The Haunt has gotten a lot scarier over the years.

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When the first Haunt was held, the new Gypsy Camp section of Knott's had just opened. It was a flop and didn't last long, but they made good use of it during the Halloween festivities. The photo below shows what appears to be a costume contest on a big outdoor stage in Gypsy Camp.
In the photo below, Haunt host Sinister Seymour (of local late-night TV fame) poses for a photo with participants in a Seymour look-alike contest. The group is standing in front of the newly opened John Wayne Theatre in Gypsy Camp.

In case I don't get the chance to blog again this weekend,... Have a happy, spooky, kooky Halloween!

Halloween in Santa Ana, 1894

Halloween didn't get rolling as a holiday in America until the 1840s, when waves of Irish immigrants came to this country. Even as late as 1889, the celebration of Halloween was novel enough in Southern California that the Los Angeles Times saw fit to explain it to their readers:

"It is the night of all others, when spirits walk abroad, and is observed with an immense consumption of nuts and apples. The apples were once set floating in a tub of water, into which the juveniles by turn ducked their heads in order to catch one of the fruit."

Mentions of Halloween celebrations in Orange County began to appear in the local newspapers in the mid-1880s, but are rare until the early 1890s. So far, one of the earliest detailed descriptions I've found is of a Halloween Party in Santa Ana, as reported in the Times, Nov. 2, 1894 :

"A circle of young people passed a very pleasant season in the G.A.R. Hall Wednesday evening in celebrating All Saints' day. The mysteries of 'ye olden time' were delved into by the young people in a pleasant and interesting manner and many were the happy surprises enjoyed by them all. At a late hour refreshments of tamales, coffee and sandwiches, furnished and prepared by the gentlemen, were served, after which toasts were responded to by Messers. E.B. Turner, Lou Hickox and John Nourse.

It was the hour of midnight before the party, composed of the following ladies and gentlemen, departed for their homes: Misses Conley, Collins, Clara and Grace Carpenter, Flook, Mansur, Padgam, Stone, Walker, Clara and Maye Wight and Messrs. Heron, Caskey, Gould, Nourse, Chilton, Hasel, Hervey, Turner, Hickox, McIntier, Bell and Carpenter."

The Los Angeles Evening Express provided yet more detail:

"A Hallowe'en party was given last night by about twenty-five young people in the G.A.R. hall, where several interesting speeches were made. Ellis Turner gave the history of Hallowe'en, while John Nours talked of our lady friends and Lou Hickox gave a history of the tamale, which formed the prominent part of their refreshments for the evening. A general good time was had."

So,... They celebrated Halloween by eating Mexican food and staying up late talking about history. I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get to attend! . For the record, the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) Hall was on the southeast corner of Main and 4th St. and is now long gone. . 

Before & After: First National Bank of Yorba Linda

Today's "then and now" photos, from 1961 (above) and 2010 (below) come from Ken Stack of OutsideTheBerm. They show the site of the First National Bank of Yorba Linda. The building became a Bank of America branch in 1945, but is now just another historic parking lot.

Historian Phil Brigandi shared some details about the before photo:

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"That's the old First National Bank of Yorba Linda building. Not sure when it was built, but it was probably around 1916, when the bank opened for business.
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"Eldo West (1879-1969) was one of the original directors. In his memoirs, Notes Concerning Yorba Linda (written for his daughter, author Jessamyn West, in the late 1950s) he recalled:

'Another development worthy of note was a promotion of a bank which was undertaken by J.W. Hargrove, a former resident of Minot, South Dakota, where he had been in the banking business. Mr. Hargrove had some $25,000 capital and secured the balance by sale of stock at $100 per share.

'I was asked to buy five shares as a civic duty, but I turned the offer down on plea that I didn't have the money and for the further reason that I considered I could use the money for quicker turn over and bigger profits in private business.

'However upon insistence of an Anaheim banker who offered to loan me the money for that purpose, I did buy five shares to enable Hargrove to qualify for a permit. I sold the stock after a few months later at par and paid back the money.

'Looking back I can congratulate myself that I did not retain the stock. It never did pay very well, and went under in the crash of '29 losing the stockholders quite a bit. Even depositors lost money."

"John W. Hargrove served as president of the bank from its founding until his death in 1931 at the age of 68. The bank survived him by less than three months, closing its doors in January, 1932 (one of a number of smaller Orange County banks to go under during the Depression).
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"Yorba Linda did not have a bank again until the Bank of America opened their branch in the old building in 1945. As the sign next door indicates, they built their new office next door in 1961. I do not have the date handy when the only building went down, but I suppose it was not long after."

Spies in Centennial Park

REDIRECT: At one time, this page was the second half of a two-part article. The pieces were combined and significantly expanded upon in April 2026 and the whole thing can now be found at https://ochistorical.blogspot.com/2010/10/spies-in-centennial-park.html

Something old and something Modern

Here's a interesting object in Bowers Museum's current "Weird & Wonderful" exhibit. It's a breadfruit pounder -- just like the ones used in Tahiti and other parts of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. However, this particular implement was found in 1903 in the bottom of the Santa Ana River near Huntington Beach. How did it get from one place to the other?
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While I may quibble with a few of this exhibit's descriptive panels, it's all definitely worth seeing. It's a gathering of random bits and pieces from the museum's various collections, including their Orange County artifacts. See it before it closes on Nov. 14.
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Author and architectural historian Alan Hess will speak on the subject of Orange County Modernism on Wednesday's meeting of the Old Courthouse Museum Society. The meeting will begin at 11:45 a.m. in the upstairs gallery at the Old Courthouse. (RSVP to Rebecca at the museum if you want lunch.) Alan is always an interesting and popular speaker.

Spies in Gospel Swamp

Looking east on Edinger Ave from the Santa Ana River. Mystery facility is on the right. (Photo courtesy Douglas McIntosh)

From the 1940s into the 1960s, Orange Countians scratched their heads over a secretive facility – poorly disguised as farm – at 2914 W. Edinger Avenue. It took up a massive area at the southwest corner of Edinger and Fairview St., in the part of Santa Ana once known as Gospel Swamp. Today that land is occupied by Centennial Park, Hector Godinez High School, and the Heritage Museum of Orange County.

 

It featured a 110-acre antenna farm with twenty-five 300-foot relay towers spread across an expanse of flat farmland along the Santa Ana River. At the center of the parcel was a large wood-frame “farmhouse” surrounded by numerous smaller outbuildings. All of this was encircled by a fence marked, “'No trespassing, government property.” From the air, it all just looked like a farm, albeit with many long shadows cast by the antennas. Many sensed that war was on the horizon, and the camouflaging of the facility and the levels of secrecy and security that would soon surround reflected that.

An early aerial view of the site, from Electronics magazine.

Officially, this facility was the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Santa Ana Primary Monitoring Station, which watched over (listened over?) the airwaves to ensure adherence to their regulations. But from the beginning, it was also one of the many auxiliary stations of the joint Radio intelligence Center, which had been established in San Francisco in early 1942 by the Army (Department of War), the Navy, and the FCC's National Defense Operations Section.

Their equipment was so sensitive that two such stations working together (often Santa Ana worked in tandem with a sister station in Portland) could track the exact location of a radio-equipped police car in Australia.

The FBI had already expressed serious concerns about 5th column propaganda broadcasts over what we’d now call “pirate radio.” But the Center’s primary focus was Japanese military and intelligence throughout the Pacific region. At least a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, they developed these monitoring stations across the country to track the enemies of the United States and listen in on their radio communications.

The federal government first acquired the land on Edinger from rancher and Santa Ana Planning Commission Chairman William F. Croddy and his wife, Marine M. Croddy, on June 6, 1941. The feds built their monitoring station there, beginning later that summer. At least the first phase was built by Santa Ana contractor Oscar T. Moore.

Equipment inside the station, 1947 (From Electronics magazine)

Former Heritage Museum Director of Education Adam England gathered as much historical information as he could about the property around 2008, including numerous first-hand accounts. “The ‘farmhouse’ was a two-story affair, made of thick cement, with three additional stories underground,” England said. “Paul Reardon, one of the early founders of the museum, wanted to put his office there [shortly before it was torn down] but was refused.”

Soon after the land was purchased in 1941, Santa Ana farmer Stephen Griset sent the FCC a written request to rent the land to grow winter hay crops "such as oats, wheat, barley or rye grass" to feed his 100 head of dairy cattle. The government agreed to rent Griset the use of the land for that purpose at $2 per acre. This step eliminated the serious fire hazard represented by the tall weeds which would otherwise grow around the facilities and equipment if it remained untended. Moreover, these actively tended fields, along with the “farmhouse” building, making the illusion of a farm mostly true.

Few reports of activity at the monitoring station made it to the public. An early exception was word that they were listening to signals sent from Hamburg, Germany (6,000 miles away) to Hitler's spies in the U.S.  By the end of the war, thirty-three spies were arrested based on this program. 

But that was the tip of the iceberg. Additional examples were provided in a 1952 Los Angeles Times article: "During World War II, a physiotherapy outfit in a medical building was found to be doubling as an illicit radio transmitter. Special cunning was required to discover that a clarinet player in a Berlin orchestra broadcasting to this country was varying his tempo to send messages to German agents in America. What seemingly is pesky static on a broadcast from England may be something else. What is there to keep a foreign enemy from making recordings of static and broadcasting them on the British program wavelength? A Churchill speech might even be used to camouflage coded signals from Stalin."

Aerial photo of the center of the station, 1947.

Being on the west coast, all signs point to Japanese activity being the Santa Ana station’s primary focus during the war. But even less about those secretive duties ever came to light. However, the late historian Wayne Gibson of Olive once told fellow O.C. Historical Commissioner Don Dobmeier that the monitoring station was "where the Japanese code was broken" during the war. 

But it's certain that the Santa Ana station was doing far more than that to thwart the Imperial Japanese war machine. By way of example, a declassified 1944 report from FCC Radio Intelligence Division Chief G. E. Sterling shows that the Primary Monitoring Stations at San Leandro, California and Portland, Oregon alone had already taken bearings on 871 Japanese radio sources outside the United States. Their breakout of Japanese broadcast sources monitored and located from those facilities was as follows:

• Naval (193 stations)
• Army (45)
• Military Attache (1)
• Diplomatic (17)
• Weather (10)
• Shortwave broadcast (9)
• Point-to-Point (16)
• Point-to-Point in Occupied Territory (8)
• Other Japanese (572)

It stands to reason that the Santa Ana’s station was having similar success.

As of July 1941, William E. Downing was supervisor at the Santa Ana Primary Monitoring Station, and James Homay was his assistant. At that point, there were eleven primary stations in the program, from Alaska to Hawaii to Maryland to Puerto Rico, as well as more than 70 secondary stations.

There are rumors that the Santa Ana facility was also part of the operations and facilities of the OSS (the precursor to the CIA), which had a significant presence in Orange County during the war.

Image from the Los Angeles Times, 7-20-1952.

After the war, normal peacetime FCC monitoring operations continued at the Santa Ana Primary Monitoring Station, as it did at FCC facilities across the nation. William J. Hoffert took over as the engineer in charge at Santa Ana and would stay for at least the next sixteen years, as did most of his eleven assistants. The mood relaxed a bit. And in 1947 the station’s assistant engineer, Alfred K. Robinson, even wrote an article for Electronics magazine, explaining how some of the FCC equipment worked and showing both interior and exterior views of the facility. 

By the early 1950s thirteen people worked there in shifts, around the clock. But in addition to playing "radio traffic cop," the facility was once again ramping up their national security functions, recording broadcasts from Russia and other parts of the world.

At the time of the 1952 Times article, Hoffert and Robinson couldn't talk about the station's intelligence activities. Instead, they focused on domestic success stories. Unclassified stories highlighted in the article included…

• The navigational instruments failed on a large hospital plane flying wounded soldiers from Korea. The plane had become further disoriented in a thick fog. Santa Ana was among the six listening stations called upon to "get a fix" on the plane. They gave the pilot regular reports on his own position and saved the lives of all aboard.
• They prevented the burning of at least one yacht at sea.
• A fighter pilot flying from Chicago to Denver became disoriented, overshot his goal, and was nearly out of fuel. He planned to bail out, but the Santa Ana station (and others) tracked him and let him know he was over the middle of Lake Michigan. They then directed him to a safe place to land. 
• They also helped with local incidents. For instance, they helped direct a lost rescue crew to a plane crash site in a local canyon. They also broke a code that was being used to relay race results to bookies via radio before bets were placed, putting a bunch of crooks out of business.

Indeed, for a few years after World War II, these kinds of non-intelligence-related tasks became the norm at the station. Longtime local resident Brad Weber said, "I knew people -- civilians -- who were prominent in the communications and radio field and were allowed to visit the facility prior to the 1950s."

1955 aerial photo of the facility. Note what appears to be a radar dome to the right.

But the facility again became more secretive and heavily guarded as the Cold War heated up. Santa Anan Lee Heinly related a story from his childhood, from around 1955, that was typical of locals’ experiences in the mid-1950s through late 1960s: "We decided to take out pellet guns out to the river and hunt mice and rats. We parked our bikes at the bottom of the dip in the sand and proceeded to walk west down the river to see what we could find. This placed us parallel with the antennas. Then, suddenly, we were confronted with a couple of men with guns and badges and were told that we were not to be in that area, and that it would be best if we left. They said they were government guards, not police, and we would not be reported if we didn't return. We never did."

Among the spookier Cold War uses of the massive antenna array was “missile guidance,” said England. No further evidence has come to light on this matter, although it seems likely that this would have amounted to some sort of support for the various local Nike missile installations.

The monitoring station also tracked at least some orbiting satellites. In fact, Santa Ana was the second U.S. station to notice the first Sputnik, hours before Russia announced that they'd launched it.

In its final years, in the early 1960s, the level of secrecy at the station seemed to wane again. Among other things, it was clear that the current generation of Soviet agents in the U.S. weren’t very interested in broadcasting via radio back to Mother Russia. And meanwhile, the FCC was beginning to use more modern equipment for their domestic duties.

1959 aerial photo of what would become Centennial Park.

It’s unclear precisely how long the Santa Ana Primary Monitoring Station remained in operation. It was still functioning in January 1964, but by August 1966 the government was planning to surplus the site and the local school district was already making plans for its reuse.

"It was owned by the government until June 15, 1967, when it was donated to the Santa Ana Unified School District,” said England. “The remaining ninety-nine acres were given to form Centennial Park and [an annex of] Santa Ana College sometime after that period. The [Santa Ana Unified School District built] Mitchell School on the grounds, but the rest sat unused. They were informed they would lose the land if they didn’t do anything with it of an educational nature. That was when the Exploratory Learning Center, [later the Discovery Museum of Orange County and now the Heritage Museum of Orange County,] was formed around 1980."

We may never know how many events of tremendous historical importance took place in that farmhouse-shaped bunker in Gospel Swamp. Until more information comes to light, its history will have to remain woefully incomplete.

Thanks to Doug McIntosh, Greg Rankin, Adam England, Lee “CoxPilot” Heinly, Brad Weber and Don Dobmeier for their assistance. This article was heavily updated and expanded in April 2026.

PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

• B-30418, 22 Comp. Gen. 563, U.S. Government Accountability Office, 12-21-1942, https://www.gao.gov/products/b-30418
• Barton, William S. "Fingers 6000 Miles Long Reach Out, Tag Radio Spies," Los Angeles Times, 7-20-1952, pg 80.
• "Defense Operations of FCC Includes Personnel of 515," Broadcasting, Vol. 21, No. 3, 7-21-1941
• Dibble, Allen C., “G-Men Watch Wave Lengths,” Santa Ana Register, 2-24-1941, pg 13.
• "Ham Radio Jammer Is Arrested," Long Beach Press-Telegram, 1-13-1964, pg 13
• "Let Contract For Monitor Station," Santa Ana Register 7-8-1941, pg 1.
• "Planners Envision Sprawling City," The Register, 12-3-1965, pg 39
• Ridgway, Charles "Santa Ana 'Kilocycle Kops' Police U.S. Air," Long Beach Press-Telegram, 3-25-1962, pg 1
• Robinson, Alfred K. "FCC Frequency Measurement Techniques," Electronics, June 1947. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electronics/40s/Electronics-1947-06a.pdf
• "SA Schools Seek Federal Property," The Register, 8-3-1966, pg 43
• Sterling, G. E., Chief of Radio Intelligence Division Chief, Memorandum to Chief Engineer, FCC, 3-25-1944, https://jerrykang.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2010/10/Ex-Y.pdf

Amazing Neutras in Orange County

Architect Richard Neutra (1892-1970) is among the best known and most influential American architects of the mid-twentieth century. The Orange County Historical Society will gather this Saturday, 2pm-4pm, at the Old Orange County Courthouse, 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana, to hear a panel discussion about Neutra and 20 of his architectural works throughout Orange County.
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Panelists include Neutra’s son, Dion Neutra, (an important architect in his own right), noted architectural historian and author Alan Hess, art and architectural historian Daniel Paul of the L.A. Conservancy's Modern Committee, architect and preservationist John Linnert, and designer/artist Craig Sibley.
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The meeting will be held in conjunction with the opening of the “Amazing Neutras in Orange County” exhibit at the Old Courthouse Museum. Many of these images and artifacts were displayed earlier, at the Objct Gallery, in Claremont – But you’ll find at least a few cool new things to see (collected by the Orange County Archives) here at the exhibit in Santa Ana.
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The parking lot directly behind the Courthouse (off Civic Center Dr.) will be free that day, as will the County Lot at Ross St. and Sycamore, behind the County Hall of Administration. There are also a number of downtown pay lots within easy walking distance.
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The architecture of Richard Neutra reflects the prosperity and optimism of postwar Southern California. As evidenced by his designs for private residences, churches and governmental buildings, Neutra’s buildings are characterized by geometric precision, airiness, and simple dignity. Though many of these buildings have been recognized for their historic and design significance, some of Neutra’s masterpieces in Orange County face uncertain futures. This program and exhibit will examine some of Neutra’s best work and will hopefully bring attention to their preservation status.

Examples of Richard Neutra’s buildings in Orange County include the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, (shown immediately above), the Garden Grove Community Church (a.k.a. Robert Schuller’s “Drive-In Church”), the Mariner’s Medical Arts Building in Newport Beach, and portions of Orange Coast College. Dion Neutra’s Orange County projects include the Huntington Beach Central Library (model and blueprint shown at the top of today’s post), and the Prayer Tower at the Garden Grove Community Church.

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Hope to see you Saturday!

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(P.S. -- Neutra's Central Justice Center is within easy walking distance of Saturday's program.)

Claim Jumper, Los Alamitos, 1977

Earlier in 2010 we learned that the Claim Jumper restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy and would change ownership. The ensuing news coverage reminded me that Claim Jumper -- like Marie Callender's, Coco's, Polly's Pies and other chains -- was started right here in Orange County.
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On Sept. 27, 1977, father and son business partners Carl and Craig Nickoloff opened the first Claim Jumper restaurant in Los Alamitos. (Seen in the photo above.) The 250-seat restaurant became known for its good food and large portions.
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In a 1999 interview with Nation's Restaurant News, Craig Nickoloff remembered, "We were wrapped, set and ready to go for about $250,000. Those are fees to a city today for a sewer hook up."
.The business' California Gold Rush theme was chosen by the Nickoloffs, who enjoyed Western movies. As they brainstormed, they kept coming back to the name "Claim Jumper."
.Never originally envisioned as a chain, Claim Jumper's popularity and Craig Nickoloff's love of a challenge led to the opening of a second restaurant, then a third, ...and so on.
.The first four restaurants were all in Orange County, and were built on the bones of older restaurant buildings. The fifth was opened in the City of Industry and was the first one built specifically as a Claim Jumper. Currently, there are 45 locations spread across the Western and Midwestern United States.
.Interestingly, Craig Nickoloff is a third generation Southern California restaurateur. His grandfather, Nicholas Nickoloff, a Bulgarian immigrant, started Nik's Coffee Shop in Long Beach in 1957. Carl, the second generation, ran Nik's for 25 years, and Craig got his start there washing dishes in 1963.

The original Los Alamitos Claim Jumper closed its doors in the 1990s. The threshold of the restaurant, however, was removed and attached to a Claim Jumper in Long Beach.

UPDATE: I just got a response from Claim Jumper founder Craig Nickoloff, and I thought I'd share a few excerpts,...

"Thank you for the mention of my family and Claim Jumper on your blog. My father and I opened the 1st Claim Jumper in 1977, we had a great time building the company and we are grateful for all the wonderful people that we came into contact with and employed over the years. My dad passed away in 1989, I continued to build the company we started together and eventually opened 37 Claim Jumpers in 8 states. I sold the company to Leonard Green Company in 2005,...

"...Meanwhile my son, Nick Nickoloff, who is a fourth generation restaurateur has opened two restaurants in Orange County serving lunch and dinner, "Nick's Laguna" and "Nick's San Clemente", both restaurants are doing great and he is planning on expanding in the near future, I am very proud.

"My daughter and son in Law have opened a small sandwich shop in San Clemente on Pico Blvd next to the high school named 'Humphry's', they are doing great, the sandwiches are excellent.

"Thanks again for mentioning Claim Jumper and our family, we love what we do and hopefully will continue the tradition in future generations."

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Here's more background on the Nickoloffs and their restaurants.

The Flood of 1938 and Principal Whitten

Today's photo shows people standing on the roof of their Anaheim home during the flood of March 1938. This flood inundated much of Orange County, leaving death and destruction in its wake. The Anaheim and Placentia areas were directly in the path of the raging waters, with the small town of La Jolla being hit the hardest.
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I wrote about this same flood in a post in January. Someone recently left an interesting response in the comments section of that post. "Anonymous" wrote:

"My dad and his family lived in the Mexican colony of La Jolla during the 1938 O.C. flood. The school principal, Mr. Whitten, at La Jolla School (later renamed McFadden School and today Melrose), is responsible for saving many of their lives. After the storm, the people of La Jolla collected coins and purchased a wristwatch to show their gratitude to their local hero, Mr. Whitten."

I seem to remember hearing this story before (probably from Eddie Castro). I also found a mention of it in the L.A. Times. In 1941, (Jan 16), Ed Ainsworth wrote the following in his "Along El Camino Real" column:

"Chester Whitten, head of La Jolla School, is just about the best-like principal in the State of California, and there is good reason. In the flood of March, 1938, he rounded up all the Mexican residents fo the area and got them into the primary school building as the water was rising. When the crest of the flood hit at 3 a.m., there was a foot of water in the building and his charges had to climb on tables and chairs -- but if they had been home they would have been drowned..."

Chester I. Whitten was born Feb. 1, 1903, in Kansas. He was still living in Placentia when he died at age 92 in 1995. I believe an interview was recorded with him for CSUF's Center For Oral & Public History. My thanks to Anonymous for putting him back on our radar screens.

Before & After: Santa Ana 1933/2006

Here's 4th St. in Santa Ana, from the intersection of Main, looking northwest...

...just after the 1933 earthquake, and again (from the same angle) more recently.
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The building in the center, which lost its entire facade, was the Woolworths. Later, the store moved to a location that's barely visible on the left side of the image. The building on the right, with the fancy griffin motif under the window, is the Otis Building. It's had some major changes to it over the years, which is obvious when you look at early photos of Downtown Santa Ana.

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Don't forget that the Dana Point Historical Society's annual home tour is this weekend.