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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,...
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...
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...
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...
A Murder, A Mob, and Mose Gibson: Death in the Time of Jim Crow - Part 6: The Execution
Orange County wanted and needed to avoid a lynching. In many ways, the case of Mose Gibson mirrored that of Francisco Torres. Torres was...
A Murder, A Mob, and Mose Gibson: Death in the Time of Jim Crow - Part 5: The Concerns
With Gibson's confession, Orange County authorities assured the locals that they had their man. Soon, the county was flooded with...
A Murder, A Mob, and Mose Gibson: Death in the time of Jim Crow - Part 4: The Confession
After his arrest, Gibson gave a confession to Sheriff Jackson of Orange County. Despite the inconsistencies in his statement, the...
A Murder, A Mob, and Mose Gibson: Death in the time of Jim Crow - Part 3: The Capture and The Escape
Fullerton wanted justice. The white man story does not seem to have been followed up. After testing the flashlight found at the scene,...
A Murder, A Mob, and Mose Gibson: Death in the time of Jim Crow - Part 2: The Suspects
Who killed Roy Trapp? Who committed the "Satanic midnight" murders? Mirroring the Torres case, at first, it was believed that the...
A Murder, A Mob, and Mose Gibson: Death in the time of Jim Crow - Part 1: The Crime
July 15, 1920 Shortly after midnight, chaos ensued at the home of wealthy Fullerton rancher Roy G. Trapp. At the time, Roy's ranch sat on...
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. ...