Author: Tracy Smith Falk

Historian Chris Jepsen will present “The Killing of Frank Wilson by Alfred Wolff at San Juan-by-the-Sea” at the next meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, May 8, 2025, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange.  The public is welcome!

This is a colorful 1880s Wild West story that took place in what’s now Dana Point. This tale of ornery varmints and frontier justice includes a look at the Railroad Boom and one of the “lost” towns it briefly spawned.

On May 23, 1888, a strange “family” drove a wagon into the Santa Fe Railroad’s tiny beach resort town of San Juan-by-the-Sea, armed and looking to settle “unfinished business” with local fisherman and boozehound Frank Wilson. Leading the group was hot-tempered former graverobber Alfred R. H. Wolff. With Wolff was his wife, his wife’s lover (a wild-looking Swede), and a baby. After searching the saloons, they found Wilson in front of the Pioneer Hotel, where Wolff gunned him down in cold blood.

Jepsen will discuss not only the details of the crime, but also what led up to event (including earlier crimes), the unusual characters on both sides of the law, the now-forgotten “ghost town” in which it all occurred, the context of the fading “Wild West,” and the fates of the involved parties afterward.

Orange County historian Chris Jepsen is the longtime president of the O.C. Historical Society and has been involved in local history work for about 35 years. He’s a frequent lecturer; has created museum exhibits and historical tours; and writes for historical journals, magazines, and his own blog: The O.C. History Roundup.

Join us on May 8th, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St. 

Historian and Huntington Beach City Archivist Kathie Schey will tell stories of the many Huntington Beach residents of who served in World War I at the next meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, Thursday, April 10, 2025, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public is welcome!

American Legion Post 133 in Huntington Beach is among the oldest continually active posts in the nation and is only a few months younger than the Legion itself. It was built on a remarkable legacy of service: Those who left a sleepy coastal farm town to fight an international war they could never have imagined amidst the threat of an international pandemic.

The small group of veterans who founded Post 133 represented a cross-section of the community. One was an attorney, another a land developer and most of the rest had small businesses or farms. Some had seen the horrors of battle, while others hadn’t even made it off their troop transports. Each of their stories shine a light on the lived experience of that time.

More than one hundred local men joined the Service after the U.S. entered WWI in April 1917 – a staggering number for a tiny city less than a decade old. They served on land, on sea (and under it), and in the air. Most went to France while others were sent to China or were members of the occupying force in Germany.

Scouring newspapers, letters, diaries and more, their stories have unfolded. Among them, heroism in the sky, mastering new technologies, lying “doggo” in a muddy trench while artillery roared overhead, witnessing the burial at sea of a Spanish Influenza victim. Introductions to just a few examples follow:

• Three boyhood friends met serendipitously in a French battlefield, then separated, their fates unknown to each other and to their frantic families at home.
• Another soldier wrote to his father to watch for him in a newsreel.
• One infantryman disembarked at the very port his father immigrated from decades earlier.
• The first African American graduate of Huntington Beach High School was proudly assigned to one of only two Black units allowed to bear arms.

Some returned home to jubilant welcomes. Others returned in coffins. All their stories are worth knowing and sharing.

Kathie Schey is currently the Archivist of the City of Huntington Beach. She holds a master’s degree in history, receiving the Nicholas Perkins Hardeman Prize for her work. Subsequent awards include two nationally competed Visiting Research Fellowships. Kathie has served on numerous history-related boards – including OCHS – and holds certification in archives, historic preservation and urban planning.

Please join us to hear this important presentation on service given by Huntington Beach residents during the turbulent years of Word War I on  Thursday,  April 10, 2025, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public is welcome!

Hunter Fuentes will discuss “Paradise Found: Early Laguna Beach Architects and Their Work,” at the Orange County Historical Society on March 13, 2025, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public welcome!

Laguna Beach gained early fame as an art colony, but art is a very broad category. While most associate art with painting and sculpture, one could take inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright’s assertion that “The mother art is architecture.” In the April 1944 edition of Architect and Engineer magazine Sewell Smith, A.I.A., wrote, “Laguna Beach in normal times has more smart architects per square inch than any place I’ve ever visited ….” This presentation celebrates the work of a few of those “smart architects” whose work helped transition a summertime campground of ramshackle cabins and tents into a year-round city with world class public and private architecture. These include Aubrey St. Clair, Charles A. Hunter, Manfred DeAhna, and Jean Louis Egasse.

Hunter Fuentes works in the real estate industry for Zillow and is a resident of Laguna Beach. He developed a passion for the coastal town and its historic housing many years ago and has created a website called “Historic Laguna” (www.historiclaguna.com). The website celebrates the architects and architecture that help give the city its distinctive charm and personality.

Please join us to learn more from Hunter Fuentes about “Paradise Found: Early Laguna Beach Architects and Their Work,” at the Orange County Historical Society on March 13, 2025, 7:30 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public welcome!

Historian Paul R. Spitzzeri will present “What Do Brazil, Maui and Orange County Have in Common?  Some History of the Olinda Ranch and Oil Field,” at the February 13, 2025 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30 pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

In the 1880s, William H. Bailey bought land in what was still part of Los Angeles County (and is now part of Brea) and bestowed the name Olinda on his ranch. From there came a boomtown called Carlton and then Orange County’s first oil field with the moniker best known today with Brea-Olinda High School. Come learn some of the history of this northeastern corner of the county, including a display of artifacts related to the area.

Born in Chicago, raised in Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach and Placentia, and with a B.A. and M.A. in History from CSU Fullerton, Paul R. Spitzzeri is Museum Director at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, where he’s worked since 1988. In addition to writing extensively about greater Los Angeles history, Paul, a resident of Carbon Canyon has delved deeply into the history of the Canyon and environs over the last twenty years and maintains the Carbon Canyon Chronicle blog.

We look forward to you joining us on Thursday, February 13, 2025 at the meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30 pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. The public is welcome!

Historians Christopher Merritt and J. Eric Lynxwiler will discuss their new book, “Knott’s Bear-y Tales: The Complete History of the Whimsical Attraction”, at the January 2025 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society on Thursday, January 9, 2025, 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The story of this creative and well-remembered dark ride shines a light on a period of major change for Knott’s Berry Farm and for Orange County. The public is welcome!!!!

Designer and artist Rolly Crump came to Knott’s Berry Farm at the invitation of Marion Knott — one of the first top woman executives in a major Orange County business and was the first female head of a great American theme park. Marion Knott’s parents, Walter and Cordelia, had founded Knott’s Berry Farm decades before. Crump – long known as a prominent Disney Imagineer — was escaping the shadow of his previous employer and looking for an opportunity to spread his wings as a designer. Together these unlikely friends developed and organized a crew of talented artists to build a wild dark ride unlike anything seen (or smelled) before: Knott’s Bear-y Tales!

Christopher Merritt has more than thirty years of ride and show design experience, creating theme park attractions and environments around the world. He served as an Art Director and Production Designer at theme parks in California, Florida, Tokyo, Singapore, and Shanghai. His books include Pacific Ocean Park: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles’ Space Age Nautical Pleasure Pier (2014), with co-author Domenic Priore, and Marc Davis in His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks (2019) with Pete Docter.

J. Eric Lynxwiler is an urban anthropologist and Knott’s Berry Farm historian. While attending UCLA, he spent one school year behind the counter of Knott’s electric shooting gallery and works today as a graphic designer on Farm signage, merchandise, and Knott’s Berry Market preserves. Lynxwiler has been a volunteer and Neon Cruise guide for the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale for 25 years. He has also co-authored books on the history of neon signs in Los Angeles and the history of Wilshire Boulevard.

Together, Merritt and Lynxwiler also wrote the critically acclaimed, “Knott’s Preserved: From Boysenberry to Theme Park, The History of Knott’s Berry Farm” (2010), which remains the leading book on the subject.

Knott’s Fans and everyone: Please join us on Thursday, January 9, 2025, 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange!!

Historian Eric Plunkett will discuss “Biographies of Orange County’s First Peoples – Insights from the Mission San Juan Capistrano Registers”, at the next meeting of the Orange County Historical Society on Thursday, December 12, 2024, 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public is welcome!

In this talk, historian Eric Plunkett will discuss how Mission San Juan Capistrano’s baptism, marriage, and burial registers can be used to piece together compelling stories of the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples. The emergent stories include how different villages developed alliances through marriages, their various responses to colonization, and sketches of individual biographies that provide the best insight yet into the lives of Orange County’s first people. While many historians have looked at the larger picture, this is a rare opportunity to learn about some of these native locals as individuals.

Eric Plunkett is the author of St. Junípero Serra and the Founders of Mission San Juan Capistrano and Orange County and many scholarly articles and is co-author, with Phil Brigandi, of the OCHS publication, The Portola Expedition in Orange County. Plunkett teaches in the Placentia Yorba-Linda Unified School District. A native of Placentia, he graduated with a degree in history from CSU Fullerton. He has led numerous Orange County Historical Society  tours and History Hikes and has addressed our Society on many occasions. He blogs about the early history of Orange County at www.visionsofcalifornia.blogspot.com.

Please join us for this compelling presentation on Thursday, December 12, 2024, 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public is welcome!

Come to Authors Night 2024 at the general meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, November 14th, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in the City of Orange. Among the featured authors slated to discuss, sell, and sign their books are Chris Nichols, Larry Strawther, Linda Rattner Nunn, Paul Carter and Roy Stephenson. Their books span a wide array of local historical topics, including the Tustin blimp hangars, bowling alleys, Seal Beach, Richard Nixon, Los Alamitos and Rossmoor, and both the development of Yorba Linda as a whole and of that city’s Jewish community specifically. Some authors will also be bringing some of their previous books to sign and sell. The public is welcome.

Paul Carter

Endless books have beaten the subject of Watergate to death, but few have delved into Nixon’s deep, defining roots in California. In his book, Richard Nixon: California’s Native Son, Paul Carter challenges common conceptions of the thirty-seventh president of the United States and reveals the people, places, and experiences that shaped the most famous Orange County native of all time. The book follows Nixon’s story from his birth in Yorba Linda to his final resting place just a few yards from the home in which he was born. Paul Carter is an attorney with more than twenty years of experience in investigation and trial work. You may remember his biographical map, Native Son: Richard Nixon’s Southern California. His book includes a foreword by Tricia Nixon Cox.

David Crawley (Posthumously)

Although author David Crawley passed in 2021, the Tustin Area Historical Society (TAHS)  has reprinted his hard-to-find book, United States Naval Air Station Lighter-Than-Air Santa Ana, California. Timothy Zierer, vice-president of TAHS, will share this historical volume about the famous blimp hangars of NAS Santa Ana (later known as MCAS Tustin), which are/were among the largest free-standing buildings in the world. This book is a comprehensive history of the base, from its time as a bean field owned by James Irvine to its decommissioning in 1999. The book is heavily illustrated and includes interesting stories about the blimps and helicopters associated with the base. After his naval service during the Vietnam War, Crawley became a civilian employee of the Department of Defense at both MCAS Tustin and MCAS El Toro, where he held the positions of Engineering Technician and Environmental Protection Specialist.

Chris Nichols

Bowlarama: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling takes aim at the obsession that swept the post-war nation: bowling! Bowling alleys became modern palaces; companies constantly tried to outdo each other, whether competing for the most spectacular architecture, the most luxurious lanes, the snazziest bowling balls, or the most exciting refreshments they could offer. And many of the best were right here in Orange County and Los Angeles. Bowlarama is both a history of these places and this phenomenon, and a visual feast — packed with vintage photos, ephemera, and architectural renderings that capture all the optimism and enthusiasm of the era. Chris Nichols is a longtime preservationist, former chair of the L.A. Conservancy’s Modern Committee, and senior editor at Los Angeles magazine. His other books include Walt Disney’s Disneyland and The Leisure Architecture of Wayne McAllister.

Linda Rattner Nunn

Interviews with Chabad Rabbi Dovid Eliezri and ten founding members of North County Chabad are the heart of A Place for Our Future: Building a Jewish Community in Yorba Linda, California. Author Linda Rattner Nunn’s book tells the story of a local Chabad congregation that started in a little yellow Yorba Linda farmhouse and then grew dramatically along with the rest of the city. “Read this book,” she says, “and you will feel like an old-timer of the congregation — a congregation representative of many other Chabad congregations around the world.” The book is also the story of the Yorba Linda’s evolution from a rural place where residents rode horses downtown and fruit stands punctuated the main drag, to a growing, modern city that draws new residents from every corner of the globe.

Roy Stephenson

Although covering the entire history of the Yorba Linda area, from prehistoric times to modern day, the primary focus of Roy Stephenson’s book, Building Yorba Linda From Scratch: 1973-2001, is on the community’s development ever since its citizens decided to incorporate as a city. The city began as just five square miles and with a population of five hundred. “I was hired six years later and for the next twenty-eight years I served as a Public Works Director/City Engineer playing a key role in working with the City Council and City Manager to shepherd the growth of the City to its current twenty square miles, population of 70,000…” The book provides behind the scenes stories of the city’s growth, including tales of the Nixon Presidential Library, redevelopment, the annexation of large ranches and SAVI (Santa Ana Valley Irrigation)  property, the city’s role in the development of the TCA/Toll Roads, and other previously unknown chapters of the Yorba Linda’s history.

Larry Strawther

The story of Seal Beach, from the port and summer retreat of Anaheim Landing; to early aviation and motion pictures; to a den of gambling, speakeasies and brothels; and finally to a quiet residential beach town, is the subject of Larry Strawther’s book, Seal Beach : A Brief History. Another of Strawther’s books, A Brief History of Los Alamitos & Rossmoor tracks the evolution of Los Alamitos from cattle ranches and sugar production, to a World War II military town, and ultimately into residential neighborhoods, as well as the mid-century creation and development of the adjacent unincorporated planned community of Rossmoor. Larry Strawther is on the board of the Seal Beach Historic Resources Foundation. In his forty years as a professional writer, he’s been an author, columnist, sports reporter, and has written and produced for movies and television including Happy Days, to Night Court, to Jeopardy!

We look forward to seeing you at Authors Night 2024 at the Orange County Historical Society general meeting held on November 14th, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in the City of Orange.