Through its pages walk Portolá, the explorer; Father Serra, founder of missions; the Yorbas, Peraltas, Sepulvedas, Ontiveros, Forsters and other great rancheros; Pío and André Pico, Col. John C. Fremont and General Stephen W. Kearny of the Mexican War Period; George Hansen, William H. Spurgeon, Columbus Tustin, the Rev. L. P. Webber, Alfred B. Chapman, Andrew Glassell, James and Robert McFadden, the Amerige brothers, Gaylord Wilshire, Ole Hansen and other city builders. In addition appear the names of many other persons who played a role in the development of the County.

This was the first work which treated the history of Orange County as an entity rather than as a collection of isolated communities. With a scholar's scrupulous attention to fact and a journalist's gift for clarity, Leo J. Friis wrote the foundation of the Orange County in which we live today.