THE EARTHQUAKE AND FLOOD

After the earthquake damage was repaired and the country got into the waning days of the Depression, another of Nature's unpredictable catastrophes struck the town. On March 3, 1938, after many cloudbursts in the mountains, the Santa Ana River overflowed its banks and was nearly two feet deep through the Buena Park area.

Mail could have been waterborne from the Post Office in the Schumacher, Golden, Trapp Building and a rowboat would have been logical equipment for a shopping trip to Grand Avenue and Manchester Boulevard.

GRAND AND MANCHESTER, MARCH 3, 1938

The tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad formed waterfalls as the water poured down Grand Avenue. The picture above also brought remembrances of the 1933 earthquake, for the fancy parapet of the Jaynes Block building had not been replaced. The picture below, looking south on Grand Avenue from Manchester Boulevard, shows the running boards the cars had then were certainly running water.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC CROSSING OF GRAND IN FLOOD

The Nutrilite Company moved to Buena Park in 1946, making the second company to make nationally known products. They located first on Grand Avenue across from 4th Street, and moved to the Santa Fe crossing in 1949. The Nutrilite Company and the Uddo and Taormina cannery were the two major companies in town in 1950. The census that year showed Buena Park to have a population of 5483 persons, up 4488 persons in fifty years.

NUTRILITE, 1950, AND A SANTA FE TRAIN

The third industry, normally not thought of as an industry, but also nationally known for
its products, was not in the town; but would become part of the city soon after incorporation. This is Knott's Berry Farm whose preserves are shipped nationally and internationally.