), and includes more than a few major political players. The Mexican government also authorized land grants of up to 44,000 acres to Mexican citizens who would occupy and improve the land. Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded on November 1, 1776. 1. This original citrus fruit was small, wrinkled and bitter. During World War II, a number of important military bases were established in Orange County, including the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, the Seal Beach Naval Weapons station, originally known as the Naval Ammunition and Net Depot Seal Beach, the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, originally known as the Los Alamitos Naval Air Station, and the Santa Ana Army Air Base. But everywhere in the county there are places with stories to tell that most locals don’t even know. Flores Peak is located in the Santa Ana Mountains above Modjeska Canyon. In 1933, a 17-year-old amateur archaeologist in Laguna Beach chipped a skull out of the ground on St. Ann’s Drive. Until the 1950s, agriculture remained the most important part of Orange County’s economy. In 1868, vast areas on either side of the Santa Ana River were placed on the market, and the towns of Santa Ana, Tustin, Orange, Westminster, and Garden Grove were soon founded. In 1894, another group, the Orange County Fair Association, Inc., took over. Trabuco Canyon can be reached from the 241 Toll Road by taking Santa Margarita Parkway to Trabuco Canyon Road in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. This gave the rancheros a new market for their cattle, which were sold as beef to feed hard-working miners. Beginning in the 1990s, toll roads were added in some areas to meet the needs of growing communities. By the time they arrived in the area of Dana Point, they were out of supplies, including the pirate staple, rum. The area was subdivided, an irrigation ditch dug, and the vineyards planted before the first colonists moved to Anaheim in 1859.  Mostly the pirates drank all the wine and rum they could find until many of them had to be carried back to the ship. Aliso Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Ladera Ranch, and others followed in the 1980s and 1990s. At the end of the Mexican War in 1848, California was ceded to the United States by Mexico. The county is given the name of Orange for its extensive orange … Richard Milhous Nixon is now more famous for having to leave the presidency, than how he got there or what he did as president. But the ranch was only open for a few years as more people wanted to build houses there and more tourists spent their money at a newly opened place called Disneyland. Even before the Revolution the Regulators made it a battleground for political justice. The Orange County Archives serves as the main repository for historic property documents, vital records and other materials from county government. Freeway construction began in the 1950s with the opening of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway, and continued almost unabated into the 1970s. Originally, the proposed county line was drawn at the San Gabriel River, but the line was moved south to Coyote Creek to help gain support in Sacramento. In 1769, Gaspar de Portola rode through the hills of Orange County while searching for good places to build missions for Spain.  While traveling through a local canyon, someone in the group lost his blunderbuss – a type of short shotgun. Board members may be available to assist you with your research questions and help you discover what materials we have. We encourage you to join the board in contributing to this fund that will continue Phil’s dream of having a first-rate archive.  Electronic payments can be made below or by making checks payable to OCHS with “Phil Brigandi” in the memo.  Thank you for your consideration. In the late 1950s, aerospace firms and light industry began expanding here, and the increasing population meant more and more jobs at hospitals, restaurants, and stores. The first successful wells were drilled locally in the 1890s along the northern edge of the county. After escaping from San Quentin Prison, Juan Flores called up his gang and back South. At the end of the war, many veterans decided to settle in Southern California, and the region began to grow at an unprecedented rate. But the rest of the area voted overwhelming for division. Existing communities expanded, and new towns and subdivisions sprang up by the dozens as tourists and settlers poured into Southern California. The Southern Pacific held a monopoly in Southern California until 1885, when the Santa Fe pushed its tracks over the Cajon Pass. The OCHS office is temporarily closed due to COVID-19 social distancing requirements. Its county seat is Hillsborough Cities and Towns Carrboro * Chapel Hill * Hillsborough Parts of the City of Mebane and Durham, are located in Orange County. Not far away, you can drive down Bison Ave. No, these aren’t reminders of a long-lost local species. Orange County’s political history is pretty vivid (maybe you’ve heard Reagan’s infamous quote about us? In 1810 his son-in-law, José Antonio Yorba, and his grandson, Juan Pablo Peralta, received a formal concession to the land that became known as the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. Orange County, located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of Southwest California, is a heavily populated county that includes several cities today and has a long and rich history. For decades, Laguna Woman was known as the First Woman in the Western Hemisphere. Men often joined a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Don Gaspar de Portolá led the first overland expedition through Orange County in 1769, and two years later Father Junípero Serra founded Mission San Gabriel in what is now Los Angeles County. In very early colonial times, copies of these records were submitted to the county, but that … The oil industry also played a key role in the development of Orange County. Becoming Orange In 1873, Richland's application for a post office was refused because there was already a Richland in Sacramento County. History of Orange County, California. 1852, ed. Apricots had all but disappeared by 1920. Subsidiary freeways – the 91, the 22, the 55 – radiate outward toward the county’s coastal and inland communities. The U.S. entered World War I in 1917 and in 1919 there was a victory parade celebrating the end of World War I held at the Orange County Park which later became Irvine. The county size was much reduced through 1881 with Guilford, Wake, Chatham, Caswell, Alamance and Durham being created from Orange county in 1771, 1777, 1849 and 1881. His assistants pushed him into the waves and he sailed into the air, landing in Avalon’s harbor. Around 1800, Juan Pablo Grijalva began running cattle south and east of the Santa Ana River. A significant drought lasted from 1928–1934. Orange County, Florida Orange County Education, Geography, and History. History of Orange County, New York by Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.) Publication date 1881 Publisher Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Collection library_of_congress; americana Digitizing sponsor Sloan Foundation Contributor The Library of Congress Language English. He was born in 1913 in this small house that his father built from a catalog kit. For animated maps illustrating Virginia county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Virginia County Boundary Maps"(1617-1995) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website. Cattle ranching became the backbone of the local economy.  Families could drive their cars through hills of grazing buffalo. Between 1904 and 1910, the Pacific Electric Railway built three branches to serve Orange County with its “big red cars.” The coast line spurred development from Seal Beach to Corona del Mar. In the 1910s and ‘20s, new highways led the way to new communities. His company is still around and you’ve probably heard of it – Lockheed Martin. In 1818, Bouchard sailed down the coast of California, trying to claim land for Argentina. While Washington and the Founding Fathers were starting their war against England, the changes here were just as revolutionary as Spain claimed Southern California (and everyone already living there) as its own. It was so successful that they built Anaheim Pier, near present-day Seal Beach, so they could ship the wine to San Francisco.  Disaster struck in the late 1880s when a grape blight killed nearly all of the vines in the area. The land that is Orange County was part of the first land to come up from below the Early Oligocene sea 33.9–28.4 million years ago and is known as Orange Island.Orange County's Rock Spring location is a Pleistocene fossil-bearing area and has yielded a vast variety of birds and mammals including giant sloth, mammoth, … Santa Ana opened the first high school of Orange County in 1891. St. Thomas Episcopal Church, built in 1833-34 in the Town of Orange, is the sole remaining example of Thomas Jefferson's ecclesiastical … Orange County Landscape. In order to have a … The locals and the soldiers fired a few warning shots and then headed to the hills. Farming became the backbone of the local economy. Orange county was created March 11, 1889. When California became a state in 1850, what is now Orange County became a part of Los Angeles County. ORANGE COUNTY was formed from Spotsylvania in 1734, and was named not from the "color of its soil" as erroneously stated by Howe and others, for there is no soil of orange color in the County; but for William, . This angered Anaheim and some of the other northern communities that had hoped to be near the center of the new county. The local economy soared. History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 1,145,956, making it the fifth-most populous county in Florida. It is California Historical Landmark #22. History. Though Spain had claimed California for more than 200 years, it was not until 1769 that the first efforts were made to colonize the area. After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish expedition led by Junipero Serra named the area Valle de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne). Orange County, annexed from Bladen, Granville, and Johnston in 1752, was named in honor of William the Fifth of Orange; King George III was William’s grandfather. The county seat, Orange, is at 30°05' north latitude and 93°44' west longitude, twenty-four miles east of Beaumont and 288 miles southeast of Dallas. The population of Orange County in 1920 according to the US Census was 61,375. In 1917 the City of Brea was established. Juan Flores was a famous outlaw in the days when stolen horses and stagecoach robberies were the big crimes in Orange County. The opening of Disneyland in 1955 made Orange County an international tourist destination. Under Spanish rule, all lands were considered property of the King. Glenn L. Martin built his own plane in his shop in Santa Ana and decided to pull off the very first water to water flight. The first court house was authorized to be established in 1754 where the western path crossed the Eno … History. Nixon is also buried at his library, making him the only president who was both born and buried in Orange County and in all of California. The first people to live in Orange County came here thousands of years ago. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 3,010,232 making it the third-most populous county in California. In 1857, a group of German immigrants set up a colony they named after the Santa Ana River combined with the German word for home (heim): Anaheim. With so many newer tract houses, malls, and freeways, Orange County doesn’t appear at first glance to be a very historical place. CHOC’s history began with visionaries Walt Disney and Walter Knott joining a small group of Orange County pediatricians and leaders – all determined to bring a children’s hospital to their growing community. Between 1953 and 1962, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, La Palma, Garden Grove, Cypress, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Los Alamitos, San Juan Capistrano, and Villa Park all voted to incorporate. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or … Much of Orange County’s growth in the first half of the 20th Century was fueled by new forms of transportation. Visiting his birthplace in Yorba Linda is a window into an earlier time in Orange County. Local Acjachemen natives found Junipero Serra and his posse were ambushed and his! Things had gone differently over 150 years ago huge posse to capture the outlaws and up... 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