Santa Ana is the corporate headquarters of several large companies, including Behr Paint and First American Financial Corporation. Charles Bowers was a land developer who lived in Orange County and before his death he donated a parcel of land to the city of Santa Ana. In 1931, after the death of his wife, a building was built on the land and in 1936 the Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum opened for the first time.
Over the decades, the museum has undergone several renovations and the size of the museum has increased tenfold. The museum is a great place to take a look at the different cultures of the world and there are more than 100,000 articles to read carefully. The Lyon Air Museum in Santa Ana places special emphasis on things related to the Second World War. The museum is located at John Wayne Airport and has many items worth seeing.
There are motorcycles, vehicles used by the military, cars and, of course, airplanes. Some of the most famous aircraft include a Cessna O-1E Dog and a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The Lyon Air Museum is an excellent day out for the family and the information along with each exhibition makes the trip interesting and educational. When water flows through the Santa Ana Mountains, most of the water goes to the Santiago stream.
The stream is 34 miles long and is a tributary of the Santa Ana River, there are a total of 10 main tributaries that run from the Santiago stream. Along the Santiago River is Lake Irvine, where you can openly fish without a license. The reservoir was first supplied with fish in the 1930s and is still replenished weekly. The valley in which Santa Ana is located was discovered in July 1769, during a Franciscan expedition led by Don Gaspar Portola.
The core of the city is the downtown area, which contains both stores and housing, as well as the Santa Ana Civic Center, which is a dense campus of administrative buildings for both the city and Orange County. The Santa Ana Public Library system operates a main facility, a Family Learning Center, a computer learning center for youth, a computer lab for adults, and a mobile for books. The origins of Santa Ana began in 1810, when the Spanish governor of California granted the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana to José Antonio Yorba. Santa Ana is home to the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, which presents its summer season at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater and performs its regular season concerts in the Segerstrom Hall of the Orange County Performing Arts Center.
Having been a constituent city since November 11, 1952, the citizens of Santa Ana amended the charter in November 1988 to provide for the direct election of the mayor, who until then had been appointed from among the members of the council. Special collections include California and Santa Ana history, foreign language books and cassettes, and federal and state documents. Santa Ana has a young, well-trained workforce that comprises more than 10 percent of Orange County's workforce. One of Santa Ana's most notable businesses is the musical instrument company Rickenbacker, whose electric guitars and basses became famous in the hands of many rock and roll legends.
The large ranches in the valley were subdivided and sold to newcomers, many of whom later founded the cities of Santa Ana, Orange and Tustin. There is a seasonal Santa Ana River that crosses or is adjacent to many holes on the course, giving you that additional obstacle to avoid while playing your shots. In 1958, Honer Plaza and Bullock's Fashion Square shopping centers opened and would replace downtown Santa Ana, with its department stores such as Rankin's, Ward's, Penney's and Buffums. During World War II, the Santa Ana Army Air Base was built as a training center for the United States Army Air Force.
In 1905, the Los Angeles Interurban Railroad, predecessor of the Pacific Electric Railway, extended from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, and ran along Fourth Street in downtown. In recent years, the nearby city of Irvine has surpassed Santa Ana in commercial growth, with the Irvine Business District located near John Wayne Airport. Centerline light rail currently offers 9.3 miles as part of a 90-mile Master Railroad Plan adopted by Orange County; services include a direct line from The Depot in Santa Ana to John Wayne Airport. .
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