Category: Archive

Dr. Benjamin Jenkins will present “Octopus’s Garden: How Railroads and Citrus Transformed Southern California” at the June 13, 2024 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. The public is welcome!

Benjamin Jenkins’s new book, Octopus’s Garden, explains how citrus agriculture and railroads together shaped the economy, landscape, labor systems, and popular image of Southern California. Orange and lemon growing boomed in the 1870s and 1880s while railroads linked the region to markets across North America and ended centuries of geographic isolation for the West Coast. Railroads competed over the shipment of citrus fruits from multiple counties engulfed by the orange empire, resulting in an extensive rail network that generated lucrative returns for grove owners and railroad businessmen in Southern California from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Our speaker, Benjamin Jenkins, MLIS, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of History and Archivist at the University of La Verne. He teaches U.S. and California history and directs the Public History Program. He received his Ph.D. in History at the University of California, Riverside, in 2016.

Please join us at the June 13, 2024 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. The public is welcome!

Archivist Patrisia Prestinary will present a special look at “Highlights from Cal State Fullerton’s Local History Collections” at the May 9, 2024 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30 pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

Cal State Fullerton (CSUF) boasts expansive archives and special collections that enable researchers, students, and the community to uncover forgotten stories and study the forces that shaped our region over time. Attendees will learn about the breadth of the university’s unique local history holdings.

CSUF’s collections document Orange County’s evolution from agricultural powerhouse to suburban sprawl, including trade journals, packing house records, and ephemera. Researchers can also explore the experiences of marginalized groups, including Japanese American WWII internment through oral histories and camp artifacts, as well as Vietnamese refugee resettlement preserved in photographs, newspapers, and manuscripts. Additional collection highlights include the records of the Orange County Press Club, materials from the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s Orange County chapter, subject files covering major industries like water, energy, and aerospace, decades of regional periodicals and ephemera, and the Smart Studio collection containing thousands of photographic negatives chronicling everyday life.

As the Archivist at CSUF’s Pollak Library, Patrisia enables the use of special collections through primary source instruction, research consultations, processing acquisitions, and student supervision. She served on the OCHS Board and as Editor of the County Courier from 2014 to 2016. Driven by a passion for connecting scholars to historical materials, Patrisia co-founded the Orange County Archives Bazaar, bringing heritage institutions together to engage the public.

Please join us on May 9, 2024 at the meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30 pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. The public is welcomed!

Historian Paul R. Spitzzeri will present “’This Miraculous Health and Curative Wonder Water’: The La Vida Mineral Springs of Carbon Canyon,” at the March 14, 2024 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. The public is welcome!

For most of the 20th century, La Vida Mineral Springs was a popular resort in the Brea portion of Carbon Canyon, offering hot mineral water baths and pools, a motel, cabins, a café and more. Its carbonated water was widely sold in many flavors and was promoted for its many purported health benefits. Today, little is left of La Vida, but Paul R. Spitzzeri will share with the OCHS some of the fascinating history that has flowed from the site.

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 been since 1988. In addition to writing extensively about greater Los Angeles history, Paul, a resident of the Carbon Canyon neighborhood Sleepy Hollow in Chino Hills (2/10 of a mile from the O.C. border), has delved deeply into the history of the Canyon over the last twenty years and maintains the Carbon Canyon Chronicle blog.

We look forward to you joining us on March 14, 2024 to discover the history of the La Vida Mineral Springs,7:30pm at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

“The Life and Times of Richard Henry Dana, Jr.” will be the subject of local historian Bob Minty’s presentation at the February 8, 2024 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society (OCHS), 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

Locals know Richard Henry Dana as the namesake of Dana Point and the author of Two Years Before the Mast — a treatise on the harsh life of sailors, which happened to also describe his 1835 visit to what’s now Dana Point. But Dana was far more a merchant seaman and memoirist. He was a lawyer, a politician, a student of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a friend of Herman Melville, a prominent abolitionist, and a champion of the downtrodden. As U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts during the Civil War, he even went before the U.S. Supreme Court, defending President Lincoln’s blockade of Confederate ports.

Bob Minty has been the program chair of the Dana Point City Historical Society for several years, is a Life Member of OCHS, and has been portraying Richard Henry Dana, Jr. as a reenactor for the Pilgram Program at the Ocean Institute since the 1980s. He is the go-to person for anything relating to Richard Henry Dana and has given presentations to members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and numerous professional organizations. Some OCHS members will also recall Bob’s memorable presentation before the Society in 2017 regarding the whaling industry that once existed off the coast of Orange County.

This history of Westminster, California will be the subject of local historian and author Nick Popadiuk’s presentation at the January 11, 2024 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St. in the City of Orange. The public is welcome.

The founding of Westminster Colony in 1871 marked the appearance of a third sizable settlement in what was then southeast Los Angeles County. Many of its early residents had close ties to Anaheim and during the colony’s first decade its population rivaled that of Santa Ana. This program focuses on seven individuals and families whose influence was felt beyond the agricultural community in which they lived. It will feature photos of Westminster from the Westminster Historical Museum that haven’t been available or widely seen before.

Nick Popadiuk first moved to Westminster with his parents in 1958. He attended Blessed Sacrament School during the 1960s and graduated from Evergreen State College in Washington in 1975. Following a career in the sign business, he has dedicated his time to researching local history. He is on the Westminster Historical Society board of directors and is assistant archivist at the Westminster Historical Museum. He and his wife raised their family in Westminster and still live there. He recently authored the book, Images of America: Westminster. 

Please join us to learn more about Westminster on January 11th, 7:30pm Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St. in the City of Orange!

Interested in local historical landmarks? Learn about the ongoing SoCal Landmarks documentation project from project manager Andy Schmidt at the December 14, 2023 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. All are welcome. Landmarks are so very cool!!!!

SoCal Landmarks is an ongoing photography project documenting the myriad sites, buildings, structures, monuments, and other natural and historical points of importance/interest that are considered landmarks in the ten southern counties of California. Since the launch of the project in February 2020, a small, dedicated group of photographers has contributed content for the project’s archives, its website (https://socallandmarks.com), and presence on five social media platforms.

Project manager Andy Schmidt moved to Orange County in late 2005. As a member of the Photographic Society of Orange County, he was involved with the Slice of Orange photography project organized by John Bare of Laguna Niguel, for which he provided administrative and technical assistance. In mid-2019, Andy approached John and one of the other photographers in the Slice project, Al Russell, about helping organize and administer an open-ended project focusing on historical landmarks. Already, the project has documented more than 600 landmarks with many more still to go.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 7:30p.m., at the Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. You do not want to miss this presentation!

Come to Authors Night 2023 at the November 9th meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 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 Eric Plunkett, Martin Brower, Robert Stoffel, Ted Dougherty, Donna Friess, and Doug Westfall. Their books span a wide array of local historical topics, from Junipero Serra and San Juan Capistrano to Knott’s Scary Farm, the Irvine Ranch, public safety radio, the Weesha Club, and the Jewish experience in Orange County. The public is welcome.

Martin A. Brower

After WWII, Orange County’s Jewish population grew from a small enclave into a vibrant community in excess of 100,000. O.C. now boasts 30 synagogues, a Jewish Community Center, one of the nation’s largest Jewish day schools, and an excellent Jewish home for the aging. In Orange County Jew: A Memoir, Martin Brower superimposes this growth over the amazing development of Orange County itself, using as a framework the story of his own 36 years as an O.C. resident and business leader. In his other book, The Irvine Ranch: A Time for People, Brower describes the excitement, accomplishments, and conflicts of developing the Irvine Ranch into America’s largest master-planned community. Brower was Director of Public Relations for The Irvine Company from 1973 to 1985. He published the “Orange County Report” (1985-1999) and writes a real estate column for Coast magazine.

Eric Plunkett

Franciscan friar Junípero Serra y Ferrer led the effort to establish the California Missions. He was a key figure in the development of Alta California, was canonized in 2015, and his life remains a lively topic of debate today. Eric Plunkett is the leading authority today on Orange County’s Spanish and Mexican Eras. His book, St. Junípero Serra and the Founders of Mission San Juan Capistrano and Orange County, uncovers never-before tales of Serra’s time in our area and sheds new light on the man and his work. 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 published several articles and co-authored a book about the Portola Expedition with Phil Brigandi. He blogs about the early history of O.C. at www.visionsofcalifornia.blogspot.com.

Donna L. Friess

San Juan Capistrano’s history and its longtime efforts to preserve of its frontier heritage and equestrian culture are the topics of Capistrano Trails: Ride for the Brand by historian, fourth-generation Californian and retired Cypress College educator Donna L. Friess, Ph.D. Another of her books, Whispering Waters: Historic Weesha and the Settling of Southern California, with co-author Janet Tonkovich, she explores the history of the historic Weesha Country Club, founded on the Santa Ana River in 1910 by such Orange County pioneers as Charles Wagner, Albert Bradford, John R. Gardiner, Peter Weisel and John Tuffree. Friess is the author of six books and is reknown for her work raising awareness of and strengthening laws against child abuse. She maintains a website at www.drdonnafriess.com.

Ted Dougherty

Celebrating the 50th anniversary Knott’s Scary Farm this year, Ted Dougherty’s The History of Knott’s Scary Farm tells the lavishily illustrated story of how this annual Halloween spectacular became not only a beloved local institution and financial coup for Knott’s Berry Farm, but also a game-changer for the entire theme park industry. Dougherty is a writer, producer and director for theme park special events and attractions such as Knott’s Scary Farm, Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights and several others. This new book is theoretically a new edition of his 2004 volume on the same subject, but it is essentially a whole new book, with much more information, more photos, and an additional ten years’ worth of haunting history.

Robert A. Stoffel

The History and Heritage of O.C. Communications provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Orange County public safety communications system began and evolved, from radio station KGHX in 1934 to the amazing technological advances of the 2020s. This story is key to the histories of all our local law enforcement, fire, lifeguard and other emergency services agencies. Author Robert Stoffel was Chief of Operations and Emergency Communications Coordinator for the O.C. Public Safety Countywide Coordinated Communications Center. He later served as the Director of the O.C. Sheriff’s Communications & Technology Division. After thirty years of service to the County and its first responder agencies, he retired in 2016.

Douglas Westfall 

Publisher, lecturer and writer Douglas Westfall will highlight two books from his “All About Orange” series. Santiago Creek: The Memoirs of John Gietzen is a walking tour of Santiago Creek, includes a guide, maps and historical information. Rancho Lands: The Memoirs of Alfred B. Chapman is “about the rancho lands that became the Town of Orange.” Born in Los Angeles in 1949, Westfall claims authorship of fifty books and has given presentations in more than half of the United States, as well as Canada, Latin America, Europe and the Philippines. Of his Paragon publishing business, he says, “Some of our books I author, and many are written by selected authorities, while others are reproductions of significant historical publications.”

We look forward to seeing you on November 9th, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in the City of Orange to meet with this awesome group of authors!

Linda Shay, Executive Director and Curator of the Brea Museum, will discuss the history of the City of Brea’s Art In Public Places program at the October 12, 2023 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in the City of Orange. The public is welcome.

Nestled in the foothills of North Orange County is one of the county’s oldest cities: Brea. Beginning in 1975, Brea has cultivated one of the most extensive public art collections in Southern California. Today there are over 191 monumental statues covering every corner of the 12 ½ mile city. Historian Linda Shay will discuss the story of this unique program.

Linda has lived in Brea since 1996 where she raised three sons who have blessed her with four grandchildren. She holds a BA and MA in History and a PhD in Education. Besides her work at the Museum, Linda is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, where she teaches several courses covering the history of the 20th century. In her spare time, she loves to garden and hang out with her grandkids.

Join us for this exciting program on public art!  We look forward to seeing you on October 12, 2023 at 7:30p.m., at the Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in the City of Orange.