Since forming in 1889, Orange County, California has become famous all over the world for being home to such popular attractions as Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. But there are also many other places that helped establish the county as not just a popular tourist destination, but also home to countless cultural landmarks that served the local communities for generations.

Stretching across the 34 cities that comprise The OC, Lost Landmarks of Orange County brings back fabulous memories of music venues, restaurants, theaters, theme parks, attractions, and more.

Everybody knows the aforementioned Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, but Orange County was also home to Lion Country Safari, the California Alligator Farm, the Buffalo Ranch, Japanese Village and Deer Park, Movieland Wax Museum, the Orange County International Raceway, and many other large-scale attractions.

Concert venues including the Golden Bear, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, and the Cuckoo's Nest all featured some of the biggest names in rock and roll and popular music. Tiki bars, airports, drive-in movie theaters, themed restaurants . . . these were the places where generations of OC natives and visitors from around the world created memories that would last a lifetime.

Today, all of these locations are gone, but utilizing firsthand accounts, rare photos, artifacts, and other resources, Lost Landmarks of Orange County keeps the colorful memories of Orange County's past alive.

Incorporated in 1909, Huntington Beach remained a sleepy seaside town until the city's legendary oil boom in the 1920s. Wells sprang up overnight, and in less than a month, the city's population more than doubled. As the area developed culturally through the decades, the once tiny farming community increased its size with 25 miles of annexations to become one of Southern California's major tourist destinations. Pictured here in nearly 200 vintage photographs is the evolution of this small seaside village into a classic, Southern California beach city, known as Surf City to nearly a million tourists a year. Showcased here are images acquired from city records, including shots of the famous Huntington Beach Pier as it evolved over the century, rare amateur photos of one of the largest gushers in city history, vintage beach scenes, rarely seen historic aerial views, images of the turn of the century Tent City, the infamous flood of 1938, and nostalgic shots of the Saltwater Plunge.

The Polo Grounds is one of baseball's most sacred ballparks. Built below Coogan's Bluff in 1891, the bathtub-shaped stadium played host to iconic baseball moments, including Willie Mays's famous catch in the 1954 World Series and Bobby Thomson's shot heard 'round the world. The era before those moments holds a history all its own, when the New York Giants, Yankees, and the football Giants shared the park. The dawn of the 20th century through the 1920s is a rarely seen chapter in Polo Grounds history, and it is presented here for the first time in all of its photographic glory.

James Dean Died Here takes you on a journey across North America to the exact locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place. It's a road map for pop culture sites, from Patty Hearst's bank to the garage where Apple Computer was born. Featuring hundreds of photographs, this fully illustrated encyclopedic look at the most famous and infamous pop culture events includes historical information on over 600 landmarks--as well as their exact location. James Dean Died Here is an amazing portrait of the bizarre, shocking, weird and wonderful moments that have come to define American popular culture.

The great acts--from Hendrix to Joplin and from Kiss to Korn--played to the Orange County crowd at such classic venues as Huntington Beach's Golden Bear, the Anaheim Convention Center and Anaheim's Doll Hut. Rock 'n' roll's OC roots include Leo Fender's electric guitar factory in Fullerton and the birthplace for the garage-band standard Louie Louie in Anaheim. As the music changed, iconic OC groups like Social Distortion and Avenged Sevenfold helped lead the way. Final curtains came down here, too: though killed in England, Eddie Cochran is buried in Cypress, and Bobby Hatfield, half of the Righteous Brothers, is interred at Corona del Mar. Join pop culture expert Chris Epting for the essential big hits plus idiosyncratic flip-side riffs of Orange County's mighty rock 'n' roll history.

Author Chris Epting established a new genre in book publishing when a trio of titles in the early 2000s--James Dean Died Here: The Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks, Elvis Presley Passed Here, and Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here--were released to critical acclaim and introduced readers to a groundbreaking travel concept: The pop culture road trip. Epting promptly followed these hugely popular and influential titles with two more legendary books: Led Zeppelin Crashed Here and Roadside Baseball.

A Booksense 76 pick at the time, James Dean Died Here was covered by such major news outlets as NPR's All Things Considered, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Publishers Weekly. Everyone from Ken Burns to The Sporting News to the New York Post expressed their love for Roadside Baseball, while Led Zeppelin Crashed Here was recommended for all public libraries by Library Journal and outlets from the Associated Press to Newsday encouraged any fan of rock and roll history to buy the book.

Now, in honor of the 20th anniversary of James Dean Died Here, Epting has produced It Happened Right Here: America's Pop Culture Landmarks, which collects the best of the best from all of Epting's prior books, and then adds dozens and dozens of new sites, many of them based on the pop culture of the 21st century.

It Happened Right Here once again takes you on a journey across North America to the exact locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place. It's a road map for pop culture sites, from Patty Hearst's bank to the garage where Apple Computer was born. Fully updated, the book includes such new entries as:

- The locations featured in such television series as Stranger Things, Breaking Bad, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

- Locations celebrating the legacy of legendary musician Prince

- The dorm room where Facebook was created

- The location of the opening freeway sequence from La La Land

- The locations featured in the cult film Napoleon Dynamite

- The Jay-Z, Beyonce, Solange elevator incident

- The Jussie Smollett Subway sandwich shop location

- Steve Bartman's seat location at Wrigley Field

- and dozens and dozens of other new sites!

Featuring hundreds of photographs, this fully illustrated, updated, and revised encyclopedic look at the locations of the most famous and infamous pop culture events includes the fascinating history of over a thousand landmarks--as well as their exact location. With up-to-date information for the sites included in Epting's five original titles, plus dozens and dozens of new additions, It Happened Right Here is an amazing portrait of the bizarre, shocking, weird and wonderful moments that have come to define American popular culture.

In 1945, a watershed moment in pop culture history occurred when Norma Jeane Baker walked into a beauty salon at 6513 Hollywood Boulevard and changed her hair from brunette to blonde. With Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here, Chris Epting follows up his critically acclaimed James Dean Died Here with another collection of the locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place. This fully illustrated encyclopedic look at the most famous and infamous pop culture events includes historical information on over 600 landmarks-as well as their exact locations. Like its predecessor, Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here is an amazing portrait of the bizarre, shocking, weird, and wonderful moments that have come to define American popular culture.

Anyone who has ever wondered where Dorothy's ruby slippers, George Washington's teeth, or the world's largest olive are located will be thrilled to take this journey to find hundreds of the most important items from America's popular culture. Found in such major institutions as the Smithsonian and the Basketball Hall of Fame as well as in such offbeat collections as the Sing Sing Prison Museum and the Delta Blues Museum, these pop culture treasures include the most famous--and quirkiest--items from movies, crime, TV, sports, music, history, and America's roadside attractions.

The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain is divided into the following chapters: American Curiosities, Roadside Relics, Historic Artifacts, Criminal Remains, Celebrity Antiquities, Movie and Television Keepsakes, Music Mementos, and Sports Memorabilia. There's even a list of the Top Ten Missing in Action Pop Culture Artifacts.

Some of the most fascinating treasures found in the book include:
The Cardiff Giant
Thomas Edison's Last Breath
World's Largest Ball of Twine
George Washington's Teeth
Lizzie Borden's Axe
John Wilkes Booth's Thorax
Watergate File Cabinet
Abraham Zapruder's Camera
Tom Thumb's Wedding Cake
Casablanca Piano
Easy Rider Motorcycle
Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock Guitar
Elvis Presley's Report Card
Paul Bear Bryant's Hat
Miracle on Ice Skates

The untold story of the Bolsa Chica Gun Club, one of Southern California's most important power centers.Before the rise of Huntington Beach, the Bolsa Chica Gun Club stood as a captivating testament to power and ambition. Influential figures like Jared Sidney Torrance and Henry Huntington were members of this exclusive haven where businessmen, politicians, and even stars of early Hollywood gathered to relax and socialize. Once rapid development and the discovery of oil began encroaching on the club lands, it slowly faded into memory, but its influence remains.Join author Chris Epting as he explores the remarkable and sometimes controversial events that unfolded on the club's hallowed grounds.

Organized baseball in Orange County began in the late 1880s when community teams began forming among oil well workers. Around 1900, a farm boy from Kansas named Walter Johnson arrived with his family. Soon, the flame-throwing future hall-of-fame pitcher would be dominating games throughout the county as a star for Fullerton Union High School. As the popularity of baseball grew, more teams and leagues formed in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, and other cities. Connie Mack brought the Philadelphia Athletics to spring train in Orange County in the 1940s. Joe DiMaggio played for his Santa Ana Air Base team after joining the Army. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, and many other legends visited Orange County over the years. Dozens of well-known players grew up here, and many are laid to rest here. In 1966, the California Angels played their first game in Orange County, where they remain today as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The baseball history in Orange County is rich--and surprising.

Baseball's long and storied history in Los Angeles has been played at venues including the turn-of-the-century Chutes Park, which was part of an amusement park, as well as Gilmore Field, where the Hollywood Stars played, and Wrigley Field, where many movies and television shows were filmed. The 1923-vintage Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum became the Dodgers' first home in California in 1958, when they moved from Brooklyn. Greater Los Angeles also featured professional baseball at Olive Memorial Stadium in Burbank, Brookside Park in Pasadena, on Catalina Island, plus at numerous diamonds throughout Orange and Riverside Counties, where legends including Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Connie Mack appeared. Most fans know Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium, but many other historic ballparks existed in Southern California. Their images are collected together here for the first time.

Bob Dylan's motorcycle accident. Mick Jagger's Memory Motel. Buddy Holly's crash site. Bob Marley's U.S. debut. Elvis Presley's first public performance. The Sex Pistols' first and last concert in America. The home where Kurt Cobain died. Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off of a bat. David Bowie's secret Diamond Dogs rehearsal location. Bruce Springsteen's E Street. John Lennon's final days. Monterey Pop. Woodstock. Altamont.

In Led Zeppelin Crashed Here: The Rock and Roll Landmarks of North America, pop culture historian Chris Epting takes you on a journey across North America to the exact locations where rock and roll history was made. Epting has compiled nearly 600 rock and roll landmarks, combining historical information with trivia, photos, and backstage lore, all with the enthusiasm of a true rock and roll devotee. No other book delivers such an extensive list of rock and roll landmarks--from beginnings (the site where Elvis got his first guitar), to endings (the hotel where Janis Joplin died), and everything in between. The rowdiest and the most talented rockers are all featured, with sidebars on musical greats like Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and U2. And, of course, you'll learn all about the infamous Riot House on the Sunset Strip where Led Zeppelin crashed.

Led Zeppelin Crashed Here: The Rock and Roll Landmarks of North America is an entertaining and rollicking road map through the entire history of rock and roll

Elvis Presley Passed Here is an amazing portrait of the bizarre, shocking, weird, and wonderful moments that have come to define American popular culture. The follow-up to the critically acclaimed James Dean Died Here and Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here, this third collection of the locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place offers a fully illustrated encyclopedic look at the most famous--and infamous--pop culture events, providing historical information on more than 600 landmarks as well as their exact locations (including, of course, the Los Angeles park where Elvis Presley and his entourage would organize spirited touch football games against other celebrities).

The Orange County Fair is one of Southern California's most anticipated summer events. From its first year in 1890 with a few livestock exhibits and horse races, the fair evolved into what is now a month-long extravaganza of rides, games and entertainment that still celebrates the importance of local agriculture. Millions of visitors have crowded the grounds over the years to enjoy the spectacle of everything from ostrich races and demolition derbies to its unique Centennial Farm and the time-honored All-Alaskan pig race. Author Chris Epting recounts more than a century of community history and revelry at the OC Fair.

During his whirlwind 1903 tour of the western states, President Theodore Roosevelt paid his first visit to California. In between the appearances and pageantry, he embarked on three days of epic adventure in the wilderness of Yosemite with the famous and influential naturalist John Muir. A lover of the rugged outdoors, Roosevelt was humbled and impressed by the camping trip, which proved to be one of the most important sojourns in presidential history. Through firsthand accounts, speeches and rare photographs, author Chris Epting tells the story of a great and profound journey that had a lasting effect on conservation history and the National Park System.

Orange County formally separated from Los Angeles County in 1889, and there's been no looking back. Wilderness gave way to rich farmlands, where oranges, lemons, avocados, and walnuts made agriculture the new county's most important industry; the region was actually named for the prevalence of its citrus groves. The 20th century brought with it plenty of entrepreneurs, including Walter Knott and later Walt Disney, along with the aerospace industry, oil drilling, beach culture, and more. But the more popular the O.C. became, the more the past began to be lost to development and sprawl. This evocative compendium of photographs revisits many of the places locals held near and dear, including the Golden Bear nightclub, Japanese Village Deer Park, Lion Country Safari, plus popular stores, restaurants, and, of course, the ever-shrinking farmlands. Many of these images are courtesy of the Orange County Archives, and others came from the author's private collection.

Capturing such quintessentially American pastimes as baseball and road trips in one fascinating work, the updated and expanded third edition of Chris Epting's Roadside Baseball chronicles more than 500 important events in baseball history, with detailed descriptions of the event and information on each location. Packed with historical data, trivia, photographs, and baseball lore, entries include the birthplaces of baseball legends, ballparks, museums and halls of fame, final resting places, and many locations that are no longer standing. From out-of-the-way spots to the most popular stadiums in the U.S. and Canada, no site is too small or insignificant to be included in this comprehensive guide. The third edition of Roadside Baseball includes hundreds of newly discovered landmarks, including the former locations of stadiums that have been torn down since the last edition of the book (Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Tiger Stadium, etc.), information on the Negro Leagues Baseball Marker project which has placed headstones around the country to honor forgotten African American ballplayers, new exhibits at existing MLB parks, and suggested daytrip itineraries located near your favorite stadiums. Other new entries include the actual diamond used for the classic film, The Sandlot; the exact location where Mickey Mantle's legendary 565-foot blast landed; the baseball field in Orange County, California, where many believe Babe Ruth hit the longest home run of his career against the great Walter Johnson (along with extremely rare photos of Ruth both batting and pitching during that very game); the newly marked location in Kekionga, Indiana where the first major league game was played in 1871; all 29 markers along the new Hot Springs Baseball Trail celebrating baseball history in Arkansas; and Heckscher Fields in Central Park, New York, where Larry David's softball team played in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Entries from the previous edition include the Buckminster Hotel in Boston, where the Black Sox planned their fix of the 1919 World Series; the original Little League field and museum in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; the birthplace of Jackie Robinson; the place where Mickey Mantle was discovered by a scout from the New York Yankees; and the site of the original Wrigley Field, erected in Los Angeles in 1925. The third edition of Roadside Baseball is the most comprehensive book ever written on the locations of baseball landmarks, and the perfect gift for baseball fans of all ages