Category: 2024

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!