Fullerton

In 1887, George and Edward Amerige founded Fullerton.

But Fullerton's story is much older than the Ameriges. It stretches back to prehistoric times when animals such as saber-toothed tigers and mammoths roamed the land. Bones of these first inhabitants have been found in Ralph B. Clark Regional Park in northwest Fullerton.

The earliest evidence of human habitation in Orange County dates to as long ago as 17,000 years, which was the age determined by carbon dating of the famed "Laguna Woman," whose skull was discovered in Laguna Beach.

These early humans gradually gave way over the centuries to a peaceful tribe of Indians who were skilled in basket weaving. They were called "Gabrielinos" after the San Gabriel Mission, under whose protection they fell. A small Gabrielino village was once located at what is now Bastanchury Road and Malvern Avenue.

No one knows how long the Gabrielinos lived in the area or why they gradually began to fade from the landscape; however, they were on hand to greet the first European explorers who entered the area in 1769. These were the soldiers of Gaspar de Portola, sent by Spain to claim the land and bring Christianity to the Indians. The soldiers passed through the Fullerton area on their way to establish the San Gabriel Mission.

By the 1830s, the face of the Fullerton landscape began to change. The broad unfettered expanses of mustard fields and cactus became part of the vast 35,000-acre land grant of Juan Pacifico Ontiveros, a Spanish soldier.

In 1848, California became part of the United States, triggering a rush of homesteaders, businessmen, and, with the discovery of gold in 1849, miners. Ontiveros began selling his Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana land to those newcomers, one of whom was Abel Stearns, a Massachusetts native. In the 1860s, Stearns, suffering a severe financial setback, saved his land from foreclosure by subdividing and selling it.