Waves of Time

Ellen McCarty

Editor’s note

As we drive busy freeways and boulevards past clusters of houses and

bustling shopping centers in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, we may

forget, or may not even realize, that the land has worn different faces

-- from sandy mesas and boggy peat marshes to railroad lines and oil

rigs.

Each week, as we approach the year 2000, the Independent will recount a

bit of local history. Much of the information for this series has been

taken from the book, “Huntington Beach, the Gem of the South Coast,”

written by Diann Marsh, in cooperation with the Huntington Beach

Historical Society. As we reach the end of the 1900s, we glance back

along the road that has been traveled by the places we call home.

When the pioneer Newland family built their home on the edge of a mesa in

1898, they didn’t have any neighbors.

Their lone Victorian house sat above the marshy peat lowlands, now

Fountain Valley, which William Newland drained during the next 10 years

and converted to farmland for celery, sugar beets, lima beans and chili

peppers. Originally considered worthless, the peat lands were later

declared the richest soil in the world.

The Newland farm was a mile from the ocean and there were no roads

connecting his farm to Newport Beach. Goods had to be transported in

horse-drawn wagons. Because there was no local hotel, the Newlands also

housed many guests over the years, mostly relatives from Illinois, but

also P.T. Barnum when the circus came to Santa Ana, and Henry Huntington,

who with Newland’s help, founded Pacific City in 1901. Huntington hoped

the city would become a village of summer beach homes that would rival

Atlantic City in the east.

Newland’s contributions to the town included advising the development of

the public school system, the First National Bank and several newspapers.

He also convinced Huntington to bring the Pacific Electric “Red Car”

Railway to town.

On July 4, 1904, a crowd of 50,000 gathered to watch the first daily

electric car service between Huntington Beach and Los Angeles. The day

was heralded as Founders Day and ever since that time, the city has had a

special knack for Fourth of July celebrations.

All around, houses soon sprang up, and the city’s name was changed in

Huntington’s honor.

Farmland, more than beach homes, was the city’s biggest draw.

The Bolsa Ditch was constructed in 1890 and, with other smaller drainage

systems, turned thousands of acres of worthless land north and east of

Huntington Beach into some of the most productive soil in Southern

California.

The celery industry became famous throughout the nation. But by 1910, the

sugar beet was rapidly replacing celery as the most important crop.

Another attraction was the city’s wildfowl. Hunters from across the state

would come to the Bolsa Chica to see and partake of “birds by the

thousands so thick in flight as to almost eclipse the sun,” said Tom

Talbert, an early Fountain Valley resident. The population grew, and by

1909, totaled 915 residents in a 3.7-square-mile area.

That year, 94 residents voted for incorporation as a sixth class city and

Ed Manning became the first mayor. The city was settling into its

identity as a quaint coastal community with successful school, police,

fire and postal services, but big changes were around the corner.

On May 24, 1920, Standard Oil Co. of California began pumping 45 barrels

of oil from its Huntington Beach well, an event that forever transformed

the face of Huntington Beach from quiet farmland into a booming spread of

wooden oil derricks that triggered a rush for black gold.