Letter to the editor

Eric Jessen

As a board member of the Laguna Beach Historical Society, I am most

interested in the fascinating history of Laguna Beach. The Historical

Society Board is dedicated to disseminating information regarding

Laguna’s rich heritage.

Although his residency in Laguna was short-lived, Richard Halliburton

was one of the most famous people that ever lived in Laguna, and he left

one of the greatest signature homes in town. The avant garde concrete,

steel and glass house is perched high on the steep slope of Aliso Peak,

just inland from Aliso Beach Park. For decades it stood alone there, as a

sentinel to the memory of a man who was easily the world’s most famous

travel adventure writer and lecturer in the 1920s and ‘30s.

What Halliburton did was go places. Dazzling places in far off lands

on most of the world’s continents. He followed the routes of Alexander

the Great, Hannibal, Cortez and Homer. And he did glitzy stuff when he

got to these places, like swimming the Hellespont, the Sea of Galilee and

the Panama Canal; climbing the Matterhorn, Mt. Vesuvius, Mt. Olympus and

Mt. Fuji; spending a night in the Cave of the Cyclops at the foot of

Venus’ birthplace on Sicily.

Whether Halliburton was waltzing across the Court of the King of Kings

in Addis Ababa, mounting stone elephants at Babylon or sailing the route

of Homer’s Odyssey, his adventures were gloriously documented in some of

the most colorful and popular books in the world at the time: “The Royal

Road to Romance;” “The Book of Marvels;” “The Flying Carpet;” and “New

Worlds to Conquer,” to name a few.

Scion of the family that founded Halliburton Oil Company, which was

recently headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton met his demise

attempting to cross the Pacific during the El Nino winter of 1939. He was

aiming to make a grand entrance at the Golden Gate and the San Francisco

World’s Fair in his magnificent Chinese junk, the Sea Dragon. He didn’t

make it. Instead, he joined Amelia Earhart as the second famous American

to disappear in the Pacific in the 1930s.

The Laguna Beach Historical Society Murphy-Smith House, located at 278

Ocean Ave., is opened to the public at no charge from 1 to 4 p.m. every

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Come and step back to 1920s Laguna and learn about the history of Laguna Beach.

* ERIC JESSEN is a 37-year Laguna Beach resident and longtime Board

Member of the Laguna Beach Historical Society. He is chief of the Orange

County Harbors, Beaches and Parks Department.