Los Alamitos, California

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City of Los Alamitos, California

Seal

Location of Los Alamitos within Orange County, California.

Government

- Mayor

Catherine Driscoll

Area

- City

1.9 sq mi (4.9 km²)

- Land

1.7 sq mi (4.5 km²)

- Water

0.2 sq mi (0.4 km²)

Population (2000)

- City

11,536

- Density

6,097.6/sq mi (2,354.3/km²)

Time zone

PST (UTC-8)

- Summer (DST)

PDT (UTC-7)

Website: http://www.ci.los-alamitos.ca.us/

City Hall

Los Alamitos ("The Little Cottonwoods" in Spanish) is a small city in Orange County, California, United States. The city was incorporated in March 1960. The population was 11,536 at the 2000 census. It is often mistakenly thought to include the adjacent but unincorporated community of Rossmoor (population just under 11,000) which uses Los Alamitos as its mailing address. Although Rossmoor is not part of Los Alamitos, it is speculated that it may be annexed to the city, or Rossmoor, Seal Beach, and Los Alamitos will combine to form one city. [1]

The USA Water Polo National Aquatic Center, where the men's and women's US Olympic water polo teams train, is located on the US Military Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. The facility is also used for major water polo tournaments, swim classes and local swim teams. The Joint Forces Training Base includes the Los Alamitos Army Airfield.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 Business
4 Famous Los Alamitos Residents
5 Schools
6 External links

[edit] History

The clusters of cottonwood trees Spanish explorers saw more than 200 years ago inspired Los Alamitos' name, but it is the sugar beet that figured most prominently in the area's later history.

In the early days of Spanish colonization, Los Alamitos (The Little Cottonwoods or Poplars in Spanish), was the name given to one of five ranchos that were split off from an original grant given to Manuel Nieto, a former sergeant in the Spanish army, by the California governor, coincidentally his former commander. Nieto's original grant was not only one of the first three awarded by the Spanish in upper California, it was also the largest, comprising most of western Orange County and eastern Long Beach. After Nieto died, his children requested his original grant be separated, and Los Alamitos was one of the five divisions.

The 85,000-acre Rancho Los Alamitos originally included much of present-day eastern Long Beach, and all of the Orange county cities/communities of Los Alamitos and Rossmoor and most of Seal Beach, Cypress, Stanton and Garden Grove. Its ownership was to change and its boundaries would shrink many times. The historic ranch house and surrounding facilities for Rancho Los Alamitos can still be found adjacent to Cal State Long Beach.

The history of the Rancho Los Alamitos is almost a microcosm for the history of westward expansion in the United States. Situiated in the flood plain between the mouths of the ever-shifting Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers, the terrain of the rancho is virtually flat, and was subject to frequent flooding. The rancho building itself is located near springs alongside on one of the few small hills in the area. It was also the site of a major Native American Gabrielino (or Tongva) community.

In 1844 the rancho was purchased by Abel Stearns, a Massachusetts native who typified the many Yankees who settled in California and merged with the ruling Spanish population. Stearns, who married Arcadia, the daughter of early leader Juan Bandini, became one of the leading merchants and rancho owners in Mexican California.

The rancho was on the periphery of the battles that settled the California phase of the war between Mexico and the United States. After it became part of the United States, the rancho was the headquarters of the largest cattle ranch then in existence in the United States. Through shrewd business dealings, Stearns assumed control of Los Alamitos and many other surrounding ranchos. During the California Gold Rush, the rancho supplied much of the beef that would be herded north to feed the growing number of emigrants who were flocking to the gold fields of Northern California.

After a disastrous drought in the 1860s, Stearns lost control of the ranch which was then sub-let to a number of farmers until the early 1880s when John Bixby, a cousin of Jotham Bixby and Llewellyn Bixby who controlled the adjacent Rancho Los Cerritos, bought the rancho along with a group which included his cousins and Isais Hellman, the founder of the Farmers and Merchant Bank and later the president of Wells Fargo Bank. Hellman was without a doubt, the pre-iminent banker of the era on the West Coast.

Trying to capitalize on the 1880s Southern California land boom, John Bixby developed the townsite of Alamitos Beach (which would eventually be assumed by Long Beach). Before Bixby, a very clever and entrepreneurail sort, could do much more, he died suddenly in 1888 (apparently an appendicitis attack) and the rancho was separated between the three major parties -- The developed Alamitos Beach properties were shared equally, while of the rest of the rancho, John Bixby's heirs kept the central section, the Bixby cousins from Rancho Los Cerritos assumed control of the northern portion of the rancho, and Hellman took control of the southern lands around present Seal Beach. Unfortunately, a financial crisis prevented the various parties from seriously pursuing John Bixby's dream of developing Alamitos Beach.

The Bixbys had once flirted with sugar beet production on their Northern California properties. Now in the still financially struggling 1890s, Jotham Bixby arranged to provide land for sugar beet production and recruited the capital of William Clark (one of the richest men in the United States, thanks to his ownership of Montana and Arizona Silver Mines, as well as some railroads) to build a sugar beet processing plant on a portion of the Bixby rancho property. [In 1899, Clark would eventually blatantly buy an election to become a Montana senator and then resign a couple months later before the Senate officially voided his election.]

The community that grew up around the sugar beet factory complex -- with its streets of company houses for workers and surrounding farms -- came to be called Los Alamitos. (As part of his arrangement, Clark and his brother H. Ross, who actually ran the Los Alamitos operation, also arranged to purchase 8,000 acres of land north of the sugar plant -- most of it in the Rancho Los Cerritos boundaries -- that would eventually become the city of Lakewood. Also, Clark and Hellman were intricately involved with the machinations and corporate dealings of railroad tycoon H.H. Harriman and Henry Edwards Huntington and the destiny of the Southern Pacific in Southern California. In additions, some time after establishing Los Alamitos, the Clarks completed their railroad from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, establishing the desert stop of Las vegas in the process.

Old photos tell the story of an emerging city. There are pictures of recreational facilities the company started for its workers. And there are pictures from the early 1900s of sugar beets being delivered to the factory by horse and wagon. Economics, combined with an insect infestation in 1921 caused sugar-beet crop failure and the eventual demise of the sugar industry in Los Alamitos. But the town that had sprung up continued to grow.

On the lands south of the factory, Fred Bixby, son of John Bixby and future member of the Cowboy Hall of Fame, used the sugar beet lands as a finishing ranch to fatten cattle before sending them off to slaughter. [He also managed Hellman's lands in present Seal Beach]. Bixby, one of the more progressive ranchers of his time, allowed European immigrant Mexican, and Japanese farmers to rent the land and grow crops. At the beginning of World War II, the Japanese farmers were rounded up and relocated to interment camps at Manzanar and elsewhere.

Just prior to and during early World War II, the area around Los Alamitos became a major center for the aircraft industry. The Clark heirs arranged for Donald Douglas to build a major plant adjacent to the airport in Lakewood and Long Beach. Soon after the Navy decided it wanted the level ground just south of Los Alamitos for its training field, which it moved from Terminal Island. The new base provided many jobs and spurred modest growth. In 1973, the base was designated an Armed Forces Reserve Center. Today, it is a reserve support center for units of the Army, Navy, National Guard and Marines.

Many former military personnel chose to stay on in Los Alamitos after the war, living in such neighborhoods as Carrier Row, where streets are named for World War II aircraft carriers. Other than "the base" the area remained unchanged until 1956 when builder Ross Cortese purchased land to build the walled community of Rosssmoor just southwest from the townsite of Los Alamitos. Rossmoor. still the largest single development in Orange County, was the first walled community in the United States and quickly became home to over 10,000 upper middle class professionals. Rossmoor's homes were designed by the world-famous architect-designers Cliff May and Chris Choate who were among the men most responsible for designing and popularizing the "ranch" style homes which dominated the suburban explosion of the 1950s.

Although Rossmoor never officially became part of Los Alamitos proper, it has become inextricably linked to the town. When Los Alamitos incorporated in 1960 its population was only about 3,400, while still-growing Rossmoor was nearing 10,000. Now they are fairly equal with Los Alamitos being slightly larger than 11,000, and Rossmoor just below that. Rossmoor, still an unincorporated part of Orange County, doesn't pay taxes to Los Alamitos, but the city virtually treats Rossmoor residents as if they were residents. In exchange, the city's many youth programs benefit from the overwhelming number of Rossmoor residents who volunteer for those programs, and homes in Los Alamitos get a significant increase in property values because of their proximity to Rossmoor.

The ambitious sugar-beet processor of today would be hard pressed to set up shop in Los Alamitos. Zoning laws keep out heavy manufacturing or industry, because nearly all the city land is developed. The Armed Forces Reserve Center takes up 48 percent of the city's 4.3 square miles. The rest of the city is a snug fitting mix of homes, apartments, businesses and open space.

The small city has been the hometown for a number of noted athletes including Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby, and many major league baseball players, including Andy Messersmith, who challenged baseball's reserve clause and helped established free agency in professional sports . At one point in the late 1980s, six natives of Rossmoor and Los Alamitos were playing baseball in the major leagues -- Robb Nen, J.T. Snow, Greg Harris, Dennis Lamp, Greg Pirkl, and Mike Kelly. The area is also home to record holding long distance swimmer Lynne Cox. It was also home to California Supreme Court Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas while he served on the Court, and to award-winning mystery writer Jan Burke.

Los Alamitos High School, which serves the communities of Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and Seal Beach, is a nationally recognized high school, whose reputation has been further enhanced by its success in sports. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, the football team was consistently nationally ranked and at one point went over 45 games without a loss. Its 2005 girls soccer team won the mythical national championship, and its tennis and volleyball teams have had extraordinary success.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000,, there were 11,536 people, 4,246 households, and 3,035 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,110.7/km² (2,875.5/mi²). There were 4,329 housing units at an average density of 416.8/km² (1,079.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 76.97% White, 3.20% African American, 0.58% Native American, 9.49% Asian, 0.33% Pacific Islander, 5.37% from other races, and 4.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.02% of the population.

There were 4,246 households out of which 36.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.4% were married couples living together, 17.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.5% were non-families. 21.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.2% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $55,286, and the median income for a family was $60,767. Males had a median income of $49,946 versus $36,002 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,014. About 4.1% of families and 5.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.9% of those under age 18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Business

The first Claim Jumper restaurant opened in Los Alamitos, California in 1977. That restaurant no longer exists, and the closest Claim Jumper is in neaby Long Beach
The Los Alamitos Race Course, has Arabian, quarter horse and thoroughbred racing. It was once the only harness racing in Southern California. Although the race course is often thought to be in Los Alamitos, it is actually in Cypress, California.
Neverland Studios, a recording studio originally located in Los Alamitos that was often used by Christian Rock bands.