Foreword

There is no more romantic background to any portion of the country than that of the California area of which Buena Park is a part. Its development has consisted of four eras which can be likened to four types of waves: a ripple, a gentle swell, a whitecapped roller and a tidal wave.

The ripple began in 1769 when Spain began the colonization of California, particularly the 1784 grant of land to Manuel Nieto near the center of which Buena Park is located. This was the era referred to as the "indolent grandeur" of the dons and their ladies in this semi-tropical land where wealth was measured in cattle.

The gentle swell came with the railroads when in 1887 James A. Whitaker recorded his 690 acres as the townsite of "Buena Park" and the "Whitaker Addition." Unlike the recorded towns of Savanna and Centralia that never began, Buena Park lying between the two had a population of 995 persons thirteen years later in the federal census of 1900.

The whitecapped roller began after World War One and the 1920 move of the movie colony to Hollywood advertised the marvelous climate. As people came, Buena Park installed city type water and sewer systems in a two and one-half square mile area that in the 1950 federal census contained 5483 persons.

The tidal wave began in 1953 when that two and one-half square miles incorporated as the City of Buena Park. The expansion began immediately, leading to its present ten square miles of area, its nearly 70,000 population, and its position as a commercial and industrial center. That, accomplished in its few brief years, is a dramatic romance in itself equalling any in the country.

Ninety percent of the present population can have seen only the era of the tidal wave, and only portions of that, for they were a part of it and now live in it. Very few of these new citizens have any knowledge of those earlier, romantic eras. It is for those, and for the ones who are still joining them in this still expanding era, that this story in pictures is presented. It is hoped it will help to create the full realization among all citizens of the marvelous heritage of the people of Buena Park.

H. A. CHAMBERLAIN