50 Fun Facts About Anaheim

What record high temperature did Anaheim reach on July 6, 2018?

The record low is 30 °F, set on February 15, 1990; winters are warm and summers essentially rainless.

Settlers from which country founded Anaheim in 1857?

Fifty German-American families from San Francisco bought the land to grow grapes.

The '-heim' in Anaheim comes from the German word for what?

The 'Ana' half refers to the nearby Santa Ana River, so the name means 'home by the Santa Ana River'.

The founders' families originated in which Bavarian town?

The group of 50 had been living in San Francisco and toured the state looking for land to grow grapes.

What did the founders pay per acre for the land from Juan Pacífico Ontiveros' rancho?

They bought about 1,165 acres of the Rancho San Juan Cajón de Santa Ana, making Anaheim the oldest American-founded city in Orange County.

What was the founders' primary agricultural goal?

Most of the settlers were mechanics and carpenters with no wine experience, yet the area led California wine output for 25 years.

What destroyed Anaheim's wine industry in 1884–85?

Walnuts, lemons and oranges soon replaced the vines, and citrus dominated the town for decades.

What did Spanish-speaking neighbors call the new German settlement?

The name means 'German Field'; the settlers themselves first spelled the town Annaheim.

In which year was Anaheim incorporated?

It was the second city incorporated in Los Angeles County; Orange County did not split off until 1889.

Which famous Polish actress settled in Anaheim in the 1870s?

She came with novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz; Helena Street, Clementine Street and Modjeska Park recall her stay.

Which berry was created by Anaheim's first park superintendent, Rudolph Boysen?

Walter Knott later named the hybrid after him and built Knott's Berry Farm on its success.

Which group won control of Anaheim's city council in 1924 on a prohibition platform?

Opponents bribed a member for the secret roster and recalled the councilmen in 1925; the chapter quickly collapsed.

On what date did Disneyland open to the public?

Construction had begun almost exactly a year earlier, on July 16, 1954.

What grew on the 160 acres where Disneyland was built?

The opening set off a tourism boom that quickly surrounded the park with neon-lit motels Walt Disney had hoped to avoid.

Which TV network broadcast Disneyland's dedication the day before it opened?

Disney had bought the site in 1953 after a Stanford Research Institute study identified Anaheim.

Which Hollywood producer built and ran the original Disneyland Hotel?

Walt Disney's funds were drained by the park, so he struck a deal for Wrather to build the hotel across the street.

Disney California Adventure opened in which year?

It was built on Disneyland's original parking lot after a planned western EPCOT was scrapped.

Which cancelled project preceded the idea for Disney California Adventure?

The California-themed park concept came out of a 1995 executive meeting after WestCOT was scrapped.

The 2012 re-dedication of California Adventure added Buena Vista Street and which area?

The five-year overhaul was announced in 2007 after years of disappointing attendance.

Disney bought which property in 1998 for just under $100 million to expand the resort?

The site now holds a Hilton hotel and the 'Toy Story' parking lot.

In what year did the Angels move from Los Angeles to Anaheim?

They had played at Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965 while Anaheim Stadium was built.

Which NFL team played at Anaheim Stadium from 1980 to 1994?

They moved to St. Louis in 1995 and returned to Los Angeles two decades later.

What is Angel Stadium's unofficial nickname?

Herald Examiner sports editor Bud Furillo coined it; only Fenway, Wrigley and Dodger Stadium are older active MLB parks.

Angel Stadium's center-field rock formation with a waterfall is called what?

Fireworks shoot from the rocks before every game and after every home run or home win.

Which motorsport championship has run at Angel Stadium since 1976?

The stadium often hosts the season opener and multiple rounds each year.

Who founded the Angels franchise in 1961?

The singing cowboy owned the team for 36 years; 'Win One for the Cowboy' became a fan mantra.

Under what geographic name did the Angels win the 2002 World Series?

The owner added 'Los Angeles' to the name in 2005, prompting a lawsuit from the city.

Which owner renamed the team the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005?

Mayor Curt Pringle argued the change violated the stadium lease; the courts sided with the team in 2006.

The Angels' Rally Monkey was born in 2000 from a clip of which film?

The team then hired Katie, a white-haired capuchin, to star in the scoreboard videos.

Who founded the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993?

The name came from Disney's 1992 film; the Samueli family bought the team in 2005 and dropped 'Mighty'.

The Ducks won the Stanley Cup in which year?

They beat Ottawa to become the first of California's three NHL teams to lift the Cup.

What was Honda Center originally called when it opened in 1993?

Arrowhead Water paid $15 million for ten years of naming rights; Honda paid $60 million in 2006.

Which German social group owned the land chosen for the Honda Center site?

The seven-acre parcel at Douglass Road and Katella Avenue was picked in 1988 after location surveys.

The Anaheim Convention Center is the largest convention center in which region?

Its 1.8 million square feet host NAMM, VidCon, BlizzCon, WonderCon and the Pokémon World Championships.

Which 1984 Olympic sport was held at the Anaheim Convention Center?

The center opened in 1967 across from Disneyland on Katella Avenue and has been expanded six times.

Which music industry trade event is held annually at the convention center?

Other regulars include Anime Expo, D23 Expo and Star Wars Celebration.

Which ABA basketball team played its first season at the convention center in 1967–68?

The franchise moved to LA, then Salt Lake City, where it won the 1970–71 ABA title as the Utah Stars.

The Packing House food hall occupies a 1919 packing house built for which brand?

The 1919 Spanish Colonial Revival building reopened in 2014 and joined the National Register in 2015.

ARTIC, the city's transit hub that opened in 2014, is known for what entrance feature?

HOK designed the curved shell, which is covered in air-filled plastic pillows and lit in color at night.

What is the name of the redevelopment district surrounding Angel Stadium?

It is planned for mixed-use streets and high-rises, with ARTIC as its transit anchor.

The city's largest historic district downtown is known as what?

It is one of three mixed-use historic districts, echoing the original 1857 settlement.

The master-planned community in the city's eastern third is called what?

Beyond it lies open land east of the SR 241 toll road, near the Riverside County line.

Which industrial district is the largest in Orange County?

It holds 63% of the city's industrial space, north of the 91 freeway and east of the 57.

Roughly how far is Anaheim from downtown Los Angeles?

The city roughly follows the 91 Freeway and is part of the Greater Los Angeles area.

Which indigenous people's village of Hutuukuga stood at Anaheim?

It was one of the largest Tongva villages, with trade links to coastal and inland settlements.

Which 1985 event is considered one of Orange County's worst environmental disasters?

It burned for four days, releasing over 80 chemicals and forcing more than 7,500 evacuations.

The Anaheim Resort district was rebranded in which decade?

The makeover replaced neon signs with modest ones and turned arterial roads into tree-lined boulevards.

Which Japanese city is one of Anaheim's sister cities?

Its other sister city is Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain's Basque Country.

How is Anaheim's climate classified under the Köppen system?

It falls just short of Mediterranean, with warm winters, erratic heavy rains and essentially rainless summers.

How much does the Disneyland Resort add to Southern California's economy each year?

Disney is the city's largest employer, and the resort generates about $255 million in taxes annually.