Just how much do you know about the history of Orange County?  There was life before freeways and pre-Disneyland, obviously.  And, of course, the Spaniards and missionaries who came to explore and convert this territory did not discover uninhabited spaces.  The land currently called the OC was once home to two indigenous tribes, the Gabrielenos and the Juanenos.

Where It All Began
The action really started in the mid-1700s.  The Spanish Crown commissioned explorer Gaspar de Portola to chart a map of the California coast.  Spain wanted trade routes.  Portola wanted fame.  And the Franciscan monks Portola brought with him wanted to make some Christians outta the native peoples.

How Many Native Americans Does It Take to Build a Mission?
In 1776 (yes, the same year that the U.S. was established), Father Junipero Serra built the mission at San Juan Capistrano… part two.  The first structure was abandoned with word of an indigenous uprising.  The missionaries fled to San Diego, but only after burying the church bell.  They eventually returned to dig up the bell and, ironically, used thousands of Native Indians to complete the construction.  And of course, ultimately, the Indians did convert to Catholicism, as required by the Spanish government in order to own land (albeit land which was already theirs from the get-go, but hey, who’s counting?)

By the 1820s, Mexico declared its independence from Spain.  And the support for the missions was gone.  Before the Spanish left, they subdivided the land into “ranchos” and parceled ownership by way of land grants to their own kind, leaving the indigenous tribes with zilch.

The Times They Are a Changin’
During the 1800s, Anaheim and Santa Ana became population centers, with other small towns sprouting up all around.  Back then, Santa Ana was second in size to the city of Los Angeles, and LA County governed the entire region.  But government neglected development of an infrastructure to the south.  And residents developed a dislike for the long trek to LA to carry out official business.  So in 1889, the State Legislature approved the formation of a new county.  Can you guess its name?  Yup, the County of Orange.

The name – Orange County – was proposed by residents.  They felt that it would attract prospective settlers to a land with such promise.  The promise?  Oranges that produced a $2 million crop by the late 1800s.  (Extra credit: try to find an original orange grove still standing in present-day OC).

The Red Scare
After the turn of the 20th century, electric trolleys called “red cars” provided transportation from LA to the newly-formed Orange County.  But just as the last rail track was being laid on the transcontinental railroad, the automobile became the prominent mode of transportation in American society.  By 1925, roads connecting Los Angeles with Santa Ana and Newport Beach, including Pacific Coast Highway, were completely paved.  The argument could be made that the alleged monopoly known as General Motors, Standard Oil of California, and Firestone Tire might have made a slight impact on the battle between public and private transportation, a battle that ultimately lead to the wholesale dismantling of the efficient red car infrastructure.  But we’ll save that for another history lesson.

Love Is in the Air
When World War II ended, 25,000 servicemen stationed at the Santa Ana Army Air Base did their part to increase Orange County’s population.  They brought their families to (and expanded them in) Orange County to begin new lives.  When the last red cars pulled into Huntington Beach and Santa Ana in 1950, OC’s population was 220,000.  Today, almost 300 years since the Spaniards displaced the Gabrielenos and the Juanenos, and Mission San Juan Capistrano was built, over three million people inhabit 782 square miles in the “land of promise”.