O.C. Q&A: Coastal Edition

Wreck of the Charles Brown, Laguna Beach, 1933 (Courtesy Steve Lawson)

Q:  Are there any shipwrecks off Orange County’s coast?

A:  There are a handful, including the Elsie I. Built in New Jersey in 1943, the 150-foot Navy landing craft was unromantically dubbed the LCI(G) 465. With a crew of 70 and armed to the teeth as a gunboat, she earned four battle stars, taking part in the liberation of Guam, the Philippines and Okinawa, and even survived kamikaze attacks. 

After the war, she was purchased by Ivey Sparks of Huntington Beach, who renamed her the Elsie I (get it?) and used her as a deep-sea sport fishing barge. In 1949, she was purchased by Shorty Ingersoll (the ship’s captain) and Herb Berry, who continued the business.

On April 29, 1951, the Elsie I was anchored a half-mile off of Goldenwest Street when a storm capsized her, killing bargemaster Wade Showalter. During a salvage attempt the barge broke in two and sank 3 1/2 miles off Huntington Beach. 

Today, the wreck acts as an artificial reef, thriving with marine life. 

Q:  Was Costa Mesa originally called Goat Hill?

A:  The Goat Hill name dates to the opening of Newport Harbor High School in 1930. The Costa Mesa students derisively referred to Newport Beach as "Mackerel Flats," and the Newport kids belittled Costa Mesa by calling it "Goat Hill."

The mudslinging nicknames still live on via the Goat Hill Tavern and Fairview Park's small-scale Mackerel Flats & Goat Hill Junction Railroad.

Meanwhile, there are a number of REAL placenames (not jokes) that are part of Costa Mesa’s history. The city includes the historic communities of Fairview, Paularino, Harper, and arguably the southern portion of Gospel Swamp. 

Q:  Sunset Beach doesn't look like our other beach towns. Why?

A:  From the enormous neon swordfish at Sam’s Seafood/Don the Beachcomber to a life-sized painting of Superman suspended over a (now missing) phone booth, and from multi-million-dollar homes to tumbledown cottages, the Sunset Beach landscape is unique. Like many unincorporated communities, the town became home to a lot of unconventional people and eclectic businesses. Looser restrictions allowed it to organically develop its own character. 

Sunset Beach sprang up in 1904 along the new Pacific Electric Railway tracks between Seal Beach and the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Against the wishes of many of its 1,000 independent-minded residents, it was absorbed into Huntington Beach in 2011. 

The town’s best-known landmark is an 87-foot-tall water-tower-turned-house. The tower was built in 1945 and supplied water to Sunset Beach and Surfside until 1974. Anesthesiologist Robert Odell and college math teacher George Armstrong bought the tower and converted it into a luxury three-level home in the mid-1980s. Inside you'll now find such amenities as a 7-foot firepit, a 145-gallon built-in fish tank, a Jacuzzi, a steam bath, two master suites and a wine cellar.  The home has had numerous owners since then. Maintenance costs are high and it's not the most practical place to live.