Driving Around Beautiful Laguna Beach, California in 4k Video

Filmed on Sunday, March 3 2024, I drive around Laguna Beach, CA to see what's going on.

The first European settlers to this area arrived after the American Civil War. They were encouraged by the Homestead Act and Timber Culture Act, which granted up to 160 acres of land to a homesteader who would plant at least 40 acres of trees. In Laguna Beach, settlers planted groves of eucalyptus trees.

In 1871, the first permanent homestead in the area was occupied by the George and Sarah Thurston family of Utah on 152 acres of Aliso Creek Canyon.

In 1876, the brothers William and Lorenzo Nathan "Nate" Brooks purchased tracts of land in Bluebird Canyon at present-day Diamond Street. In his book, History of Orange County, California (1921), Samuel Armor cited the permanent homestead of Nate Brooks as the beginning of the modern day town and described Brooks as the "Father of Laguna Beach".

The community in Laguna Canyon and around the main beach expanded during the 1880s. The city officially founded a post office in 1887 under the name Lagona, but the postmaster in 1904, Nicholas Isch, successfully petitioned for a name correction to Laguna Beach. By then Laguna Beach already had developed into a tourist destination.

The scenic beauty of the isolated coastline and hills attracted painters in the early 1900s. The first art gallery opened in 1918 and later became the Laguna Beach Art Museum. Precursors to The Festival of Arts and the Pageant of the Masters began in 1921, and eventually were established in their present-day form by Roy Ropp in 1936.

Due to its proximity to Hollywood, Laguna also became a favorite filming location.

The arrival of painters, photographers, filmmakers, and writers established Laguna Beach as a noted artist community. Although there only were approximately 300 residents in 1920, a large proportion of them worked in creative fields. Many creative, bohemian, and wealthy people have made Laguna Beach their home.

The Pageant of the Masters, founded in 1933, is held annually during the summer months. The unique show presents recreations of famous artworks using real people as models.

Laguna Beach was the Southern California epicenter of the 'alternative' hippie culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The city was deemed a smoke-free place by Laguna Beach Council on May 23, 2017. Ordinance 1624 was imposed by the Beach Council to prohibit smoking in all public places in the city.

Laguna Beach is the only Orange County city protected by a dedicated greenbelt inland and bluebelt seaward. In 1968, local conservationists founded Laguna Greenbelt and began a drive to conserve a horseshoe of hills and canyons surrounding Laguna Beach.

As of 2011, more than 20,000 acres of contiguous wildlands constituted The Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Jim Dilley Preserve, Crystal Cove State Park, and the Aliso-Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

The creation of the 7,000-acre Laguna Coast Wilderness Park as a protected area began in the late 1980s and early 1990s when local activists rallied to preserve Laguna Canyon. Laguna citizens forged a partnership to prevent construction of a 3,200-acre housing project in the canyon. Today, the Wilderness Park and Laguna Canyon within it are designated as open space in perpetuity.

Laguna's foothill trails are known internationally for mountain biking. Mountain bike hall of fame legend Hans Rey makes his home in Laguna Beach, as do the Rads, pioneers of mountain biking going back to the 1970s.

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