History of Anaheim California. Join Jenny on her bike rides across the U...

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA YEARS AGO

On March 4, 1861, in Orange, California, a multi-gender all racial class met to coincide with Abraham Lincoln's inauguration. Imagine participating while across the country Lincoln addressed the impending Civil War. Lincoln’s Inaugural address indicated to the South that in their hands my dissatisfied fellow countrymen is the issue of Civil War. While the morally corrupt Southeast boiled over, the southwest with its diversity began the true meaning of a successful Democracy. On the site that would become at Chapman University.

Beach Blvd was used for Cattle Drives. Herds of wild cattle and horses roamed the area without concern of any natural enemies. Once they were used to feed the California gold rush of 1848. Herded down the grasslands to Anaheim Bay their hides were exchanged for merchandise that the trading ships brought from the far east.

In the middle of the valley a man viewed a grassy area void of trees but named named it Garden Grove. His friends asked him why since there are no trees. He replied “well plant some” knowing the potential of the area was at hand.

A new century began with the cattle and horses being replaced by fruits and vegetables and liquid gold. An Encyclopedia company from Boston not being able to sell their product decided to sweeten the deal including a parcel of land in far off Huntington Beach. Less than two decades later the owners of those deeds became wealthy when oil was discovered on their property.

On a hill located on the eastside of Long Beach, a small house was the scene of international buyers and sellers trading their wares. Creating the environment for a place that would be known as the International City.

In Fullerton, oranges grew more plentiful than in any other community in the nation and a three story building was increased to five, the tallest in the valley, signifying the hope for prosperity that was sure to come.

Farmers in Cypress and Fountain Valley tapped into Artesian wells and a colorful fruit stand resembling Hawaii at the intersection of Norwalk and Carson later would become Hawaiian Gardens.

In Midway City,a flying Albatross, the largest in the world, was built after hearing of the Spirit of St. Louis crossing the Atlantic. No buyers were found except for a Hollywood Studio who saw the benefit of filming the large aircraft which contributed to a prospering industry.

In Newport Beach five boys set off in a speedboat for Catalina Island. The pilot had polio and wore iron braces. When the boat capsized attempting to break out into the Pacific the boy went straight to the bottom. His father decided to raise millions of dollars, during the great depression, so that this would not happen again. After the breakwater was completed the father had a heart attack near where his son died 10 years earlier. But their memory lives.

At the Bolsa Chica Gun Club, now the site of an Ecological Preserve, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig shot ducks for sport. A decade later the Army shot cans on Tin Can Beach practicing for an invasion that never took place.

As the century crossed the halfway mark two locals wrote a hit song that would be the driving force for the surfing craze in Huntington Beach or Surf City as the song described it.

In the next century, with the California economy roaring forward outpacing all but 8 countries in the world, voters seeing a benefit attempted to elect the first woman President in the United States. The need for her social programs to assist the disadvantaged outweighed all other concerns. However, the uneducated and greedy, using the electoral college, which is neither, along with three foreign powers, elected the least qualified person to hold office.