Huntington Beach, California
By Chris Epting
4/5
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About this ebook
Chris Epting
Chris Epting is the author of many books, including Led Zeppelin Crashed Here, All I Really Need to Know I Learned from KISS, and Hello, It’s Me—Dispatches From a Pop Culture Junkie.
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Huntington Beach, California - Chris Epting
Beach
INTRODUCTION
Though we’ve only lived here for little over a couple of years, it’s hard for me to imagine my family and I not spending the rest of our lives in Huntington Beach. The weather is near perfect; never too hot or too cold. All year, gentle breezes carry the scent of the ocean throughout the city and with it, the innocence and promise of summer. It’s situated close to all of the area’s major cities from Los Angeles to San Diego to Palm Springs. Points of interest including Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and my personal favorite, Anaheim Stadium, are all no more than a 30-minute drive.
The snow-covered San Gabriel Mountains provide a picturesque backdrop in winter, when daytime temperatures can still linger in the 60s and 70s. On clear days, even though it’s 26 miles out at sea, Catalina Island seems close enough to touch. While it’s been developed more than I’m sure some of the locals would prefer, Huntington Beach still retains a good amount of small town, beach city charm. The beaches are roomy and far-reaching, yet within a mile are some of Orange County’s most beautiful parks and recreational areas. There are lots of great restaurants and hangouts. And if you like to surf, well, this town is called Surf City
for a reason.
It’s a unique place with an interesting history, which is why I started looking for some sort of historical picture book when I moved here. I love books like that. Lots of pictures. Good captions. Books you can wander with. But one didn’t exist. So I thought I’d propose the idea to a publisher who creates books like that. And so here we are. Now, had I found a book like this in the first place, I’d want it to have brief history of Huntington Beach. So here goes.
The birth of this city occurred more than 100 years ago. Originally a 30,000-acre Spanish land grant, the Stearns Rancho company ran cattle and horses and raised barley on what is now Huntington Beach. Around 1890, the city was called Shell Beach, becoming Pacific City in 1901 when P.A. Stanton formed a local syndicate and bought 40 acres along the beach. In 1904, the town name was changed to Huntington Beach in honor of H.E. Huntington, who sponsored the extension of the Pacific Electric Railway to the seaside village. Incorporated in 1909, Huntington Beach remained a quiet seaside town until the famous oil boom in the 1920s. Almost every major oil company began producing oil from the rich field below. Wells sprang up literally overnight and in less than a month, the town grew from 1,500 to 5,000 people, and many folks got rich instantly. In fact, many east coasters who were given lots of Huntington Beach land years before as part of an encyclopedia sales promotion now found themselves scrambling to find the deeds that would make many of them rich. In addition to the oil production, Huntington Beach also became known for its agricultural strengths. Produce like lima beans, sugar beets, chili peppers, tomatoes, celery, and more grew easily in the fertile soil. From 1957 to 1960, Huntington Beach exploded in size to 25 square miles. In 1956, construction started on the huge Edison generating plant along Pacific Coast Highway and in 1963, the Douglas Aircraft Systems Center opened. This brought major industry to the city, and nearly 8,000 people were employed at the plant. During the 1960’s, Huntington Beach earned