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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

August 30, 1998

http://members.aol.com/
kennykao/
ochistindex.html

Did you know Orange County had its own version of Johnny Appleseed? Spanish explorers and friars left a trail of mustard seed as they journeyed through California to mark their trail, scattering a narrow line of seed that yielded today's mustard fields.

Had you heard that James Irvine, the prominent landowner whose vast holdings in central Orange County now bear his name, arrived in New York a penniless imigrant who fled the Irish potato famine in 1846?

Or that the city of Orange was originally called Richland?

Amateur historian Kenny Kao recounts these and other tidbits of Southern California's past in his unofficial — perhaps even unauthorized — history of Orange County.

Admittedly, some of the Marina High School graduate's research is a little sketchy at times. Consider his accounting of how one region of south county got the nickname Trabuco: "Because a soldier had lost his Trabuco (blunderbuss, I think meaning some sort of gun) there."

Kao wisely leaves as much of the detailed accounting of history to the professionals — namely the California Historical Society, the Irvine Co. and the California Missions, whose Web sites are linked from his home page.

You'll find Kao the history buff is at his best when retelling the county's history through images. He amasses a gallery of photos that include downtown Santa Ana from the days when it bustled with Model T's and electric trains; Laguna Beach minus the crush of tourists and coffee shops; and Disneyland during Walt's era.

—Dawn C. Chmielewski