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VISIT A MUSEUM...
| At the Anaheim Museum we learned... |
| Anaheim comes from the German word heim,
meaning home, and the Spanish Ana, because of its location
near the Santa Ana River. |
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The city that is now called Anaheim was built on land which
was once a part of the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana owned by Juan
Pacifico and Martina Ontiveros. In 1857, 50 German families living
in San Francisco decided to start a wine-making colony in Southern
California. They purchased 1165 acres from the Ontiveros family for
$2.00 per acre. The land was divided into 20 acre lots with 8 acres
of grape vines on each. |
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| The Mission grape, which was brought to California by
the Franciscan fathers, was used in Anaheim along with the
Barcelona, Malviosic, Zinfandel, and Mataro, with 400,000 vines
being planted the first year. In 1861, 75,000 gallons of wine
were produced. By 1884, with 50 wineries in operation, Anaheim
produced 1,250,000 gallons. Anaheim wine was said to be better
than some European wines. Between 1884 and 1888, the wine
industry was destroyed when a disease killed the grape vines.
Other crops took their place, including walnuts, sugar beets,
lemons, apricots and the Anaheim chili pepper. The most
successful of all was the Valencia orange which brought prosperity
back to Anaheim and the rest of the area; so much that a new county
was created and named Orange County in 1889. |
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