Orange County Almanac
If Fountain Valley residents are feeling an uncanny need to display jack-o’-lanterns this Halloween, there’s good reason.
The city, known as Gospel Swamp in the late 1880s, was once considered the pumpkin capital of the state, growing some of the nation’s biggest and tastiest pumpkins.
According to reports published by turn-of-the-century pioneers Max Reinhaus and Tom Talbert, the Len Layman ranch in Gospel Swamp once produced a gigantic pumpkin. Talbert claimed it weighed 301 pounds.
Until the housing boom of the 1960s, Fountain Valley was an agricultural area with a village at Talbert Avenue and Bushard Street.
Today
What will, or should, Orange County look like in the year 2020?
A group of experts in ecology, land use and transportation will gather at UC Irvine to discuss that question.
The symposium is part of a national effort to respond to the 1992 Earth Summit, which called on leaders to make cities more friendly to people and the environment.
The $40 workshop is sponsored by the EOS Institute. Information: (714) 497-1896.
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