Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Fritz Smythe Attacks the Courthouse

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John S. Smythe (ca 1890) and the Orange County Courthouse (ca 1903) Who was the first nut to vandalize County property? It's hard to be ...
Saturday, March 08, 2025

Willard Smith of Villa Park

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Orange County Supervisor Willard Smith One of the most influential Orange County citizens of the 20 th century is barely remembered today. ...
Sunday, February 09, 2025

Anaheim’s “Missing” Jewish Cemetery

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Anaheim in 1876. (Courtesy Anaheim Heritage Center) There was almost a real cemetery in what became Disneyland’s backyard. But like some of...
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Friday, January 10, 2025

Orange County’s Swamps & Marshes: A Historical Thumbnail Sketch

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Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, 2012 (Photo by author) You’ll never hear it from the Chamber of Commerce, but much of Orange County – from ...
Sunday, November 03, 2024

O.C.’s First Automatic Elections Equipment

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Two Coleman vote talley systems in 1964. Concerns about the accuracy and security of automatic vote tallying isn’t something new, or even so...
Friday, November 01, 2024

Carl R. Nelson (1930–2024)

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Carl R. Nelson in 1989 One of the individuals most responsible for the way modern Orange County looks and functions has passed. Carl Nelson ...
Saturday, October 26, 2024

What was happening at Huntington Beach in 1884?

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Sedgwick Post G.A.R.’s shrine to fallen comrades, circa 1887, Santa Ana. (Courtesy Library of Congress) Two blurbs published in the Los Ange...
Saturday, October 19, 2024

O.C. Q&A: Halloween Edition

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Q:  Are there any Nessie-type lake monsters in Orange County? A:  The closest thing to such a legend was Old Bob, the “monster of Laguna Lak...