The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. When we turn on the tap, or take a shower, few people take time to wonder: Where does the water come from? Like many aspects of life in developed areas, water is one of those…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the City of Fullerton, some local residents interviewed many early pioneers of the city in 1937. These interviews were paraphrased and compiled into a document entitled…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. “The land we occupy today is the very same ground on which these terrible crimes took place. We Californians are the beneficiaries of genocide. I suspect few Californians today contextualize their homes as sitting upon…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the Gold Rush of 1849, and California becoming an American state in 1850, American settlers began arriving and putting down roots on the land that would become Fullerton. In the…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Juan Crespi was a Franciscan missionary who accompanied Gaspar de Portola on his 1769 overland expedition from San Diego to Monterey. The party included another friar named Franscisco Gomez, several Spanish soldiers, and a number…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Continuing my research into the history of my hometown of Fullerton, I’ve begun flipping through Samuel Armor’s massive 1,600 hundred page book History of Orange County: With Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men and Women…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. In his book The Gabrielino, Bruce Miller includes a number of photographs of objects from the native American tribe who were the original inhabitants of Los Angeles and north Orange County, who are also called…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. A number of years ago, I had the privilege of meeting with the chief and other members of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians, Kizh Nation, which is the tribe who first inhabited the areas…

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Just as Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, represents an important (and representative) transitional figure in California’s history, stretching from the Native American Era to the Spanish Era to the Mexican Era, to…