Biography: Frank Capitain, architect of the Los Alamitos Sugar Factory & town

18 JUN 1897 – Land of Sunshine: A Magazine of California and the Southwest. p42- One of the busiest men and the same time the pleasantest in all Southern California is Frank J. Capitain of the Alamitos Land Co., which together with the Alamitos Sugar Co. has within twelve months laid out the town of … Read more

Sep 30, 1900 – Clarks sue Bixbys over right of way for drainage of factory waste

Susan Hathaway Bixby loved her Rancho Los Alamitos adobe, but positively hated the stench caused by the effluent from the new sugar factory. What this article would most significantly seem to indicate that Lewellyn Bixby was the main Bixby contact for the sugar factory, when it says, “In June 1896, J.Ross and W.A. Clark entered … Read more

Sep 30, 1900 – Clarks sue Bixbys over right of way for drainage of factory waste

Susan Hathaway Bixby loved her Rancho Los Alamitos adobe, but positively hated the stench caused by the effluent from the new sugar factory. What this article would most significantly seem to indicate that Lewellyn Bixby was the main Bixby contact for the sugar factory, when it says, “In June 1896, J.Ross and W.A. Clark entered … Read more

April 4, 1900 – Bixby Land Company struggles to raise money

April 4, 1900 — Bixby Land Company minutes book- , the minutes note that the company borrowed money from Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles. By February 1901 the debt had grown to $15,000, and the land company also owed the Palos Verdes Company $2,551.98 for “Sundry notes” given by tenants to that company … Read more

April 4, 1900 – Bixby Land Company struggles to raise money

April 4, 1900 — Bixby Land Company minutes book- , the minutes note that the company borrowed money from Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles. By February 1901 the debt had grown to $15,000, and the land company also owed the Palos Verdes Company $2,551.98 for “Sundry notes” given by tenants to that company … Read more

December 1897 – Sugar Beet report on Los Alamitos

The December 1897 issue of the Sugar Beet Planter’s correspondent had a couple references to s activities at the Los Alamitos Sugar Factory. In the first he wrote: The [Chino] Champion says that the sugar company …has arranged to get molasses from the Alamitos factory to treat in the plant here.” Later he made a … Read more

July 1897 – Anaheim Gazette coverage of the new Los Alamitos Sugar Factory

The Anaheim Gazette was the major newspaper covering Orange County from the county’s formation through the first two decades of the 20th Century.  Copies of it are available on microfilm at the Anaheim Historical Library.  Much of the paper’s coverage of sugar beet news was reprinted in beet industry publications such as the Louisiana Planter. … Read more

An Excursion to the new Los Alamitos Sugar Factory

The article below was first published in the October 1897 issue of the Land of Sunshine, edited by Charles F. Lummis.  Land of Sunshine was one of the most influential publications of boosteristic propaganda on the virtues of Southern Calfiornia life.  It later changed its name to Out West. 16 SEP 1897 — Land of … Read more

Bixby Ranch Company to sell Central Coast properties

Oct. 23, 2006 The Bixby Ranch Company – co-developer and former owner of much of what is now Rossmoor, the College Park area of Seal Beach,  and southeast Long Beach is offering two immense pieces of undeveloped Central Coast property for sale.  The land, which contains one of the prime surfing spots in California and … Read more

1901 – Local Timeline

The following are articles we have found over the years which have some connection to the growth and development of the Los Alamitos-Rossmoor area, and can be verified via a primary source with specific dates (a newspaper or magazine article, dated correspondence, etc.).   If you have items that should be included here, please let … Read more