“A Determined Lot” will run Saturdays and Sundays — noon-4 p.m. or by special appointment — through Dec. 7 in the Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum, located at the Fullerton Arboretum.

Exploring Orange County’s “Roots”

OC’s Agricultural Tradition Examined in Exhibit at Fullerton Arboretum

February 15, 2008

By Gail Matsunaga

Chapman, Los Alamitos, Kraemer, Irvine, Bolsa Chica, Santa Ana, San Joachin.

More than just familiar names in the Orange County landscape, they represent an integral part of the region’s agricultural history and its hardy group of early settlers.

“A Determined Lot: Resilient Pioneers Forge a County’s Future,” the new exhibit opening this weekend at the Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum, explores the development of agriculture in the Santa Ana River Valley and the challenges faced by the pioneer families — water supply, natural predators and harvest costs.

The exhibit is based on the collection of oral histories and photographs at the university’s Center for Oral and Public History — primarily utilizing interviews collected by the Orange County Pioneer Council, as well as early oral history classes at Cal State Fullerton.

“A Determined Lot” follows the county’s agricultural tradition from its beginnings at Mission San Juan Capistrano during the late 1700s, to its secession from Los Angeles County, to the development of the navel and Valencia oranges that played the largest role in the county’s economy for decades, to the state legislature’s act in 1957 to establish a state college — now Cal State Fullerton — in Orange County.

Leading “A Determined Lot: Resilient Pioneers Forge a County’s Future” are curator Kathleen Frazee and designer Christina Hasenberg. Also collaborating on and contributing to the exhibit were departments across the campus, including visual arts, anthropology, history and engineering; plus faculty and staff members, students, volunteers and people in the community who provided artifacts and personal items.

“A Determined Lot” will run Saturdays and Sundays — noon-4 p.m. or by special appointment — through Dec. 7 in the Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum, located at the Fullerton Arboretum.

For more information on the exhibit, visit: arboretum.fullerton.edu