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Blog: The Happiest Place on Earth: Image

Los Angeles County, 1888.

A map of Los Angeles County prior to Orange County's secession.

Chinese Laundries

In 1941, a year after the last Chinese dwelling in Anaheim was torn down, Knott's Berry Place in Buena Park received a new resident in...

The Birth of Orange County on PBS (1989)

In 1889, Orange County successfully seceded from Los Angeles. To celebrate this centennial, the special "The Story of Orange County" was...

Orange County Designed the Lost Cause

Southerner's played key roles in the founding of Orange County. Like many places across California and the West, following the Civil War,...

D.W. Griffith in Orange County, California

D.W. Griffith made cinematic history in Orange County more than once. In 1910, D.W. Griffith recorded one of his first films and one of...

Ahead of His Time: H.W. Head

After the Civil War, Southerners grappled with the reality of Reconstruction and adjusting to Black freedom. On December 24, 1865, a...

Orange County, 1889

The first official map of Orange County after seceding from Los Angeles, showing rancho boundaries and the towns.

Gospel Swamp: Some Newspaper Musings

The Gospel Swamp area, known for its fertile lands and humble "swamp angels," was often a center of land and labor conflicts in Orange...

Conflict of the Races: Chinese in Gospel Swamp

Throughout the 19th century, anti-Chinese sentiment fomented in the state of California, culminating in the federal passage of the...

Chinigchinich, All Powerful and Almighty

Spanish dominion over Alta Califonia radically changed the lives of indigenous people. During the Mission Period in Alta California (AD...

Too American: Sam "Cussed"

Anti-Asian sentiment gripped the nation in the 19th and 20th centuries, Orange County included. Many Orange Countians, including...

January 01 - When Push Comes to Shove

January 1, 1920. At the start of a new year, readers of the Anaheim Gazette opened their papers to a bit of local goings-on. The second...

Uncle Walt Embraces Aunt Jemima

Walt Disney believed in Thomas Jefferson’s empire of liberty, and like Jefferson, normalized the institution of slavery in that vision. ...

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