By Brooklynn Wong
The city formerly known as Waterville and Dairy City, which we know today as Cypress, has a rich history and may soon be the subject of a book.
Local historian John Olson was the speaker at the March 2 meeting of the Friends of Cypress Library, and a sizable crowd came out to hear him tell tales of Cypress’ days of yore, specifically from 1940-1970.
Olson has made a hobby of learning and passing on Orange County history, and there have been talks of him writing a book about Cypress history in particular.
Olson’s presentation was, in his words, “the outline” of part of the book.
The attendees, which included Mayor Stacy Berry and many who have spent their whole lives in Cypress, enjoyed hearing about a Native American skull and other bone fragments being found during excavation in 1965 at the Old Cypress Library (now the Boys and Girls Club), giving further legitimacy to the original inhabitants of the area being Native Americans. This particular skull was determined to be 400 years old, and from the Chumash tribe.
And just where did Cypress get its name from?
It had been known as Waterville, and Dairy City, but when cypress trees were built around the local school to provide protection from the Santa Ana winds, the school began to be identified as the Cypress School, and in 1895 the Cypress School District was formed.
In 1957 the city was officially named Cypress.
Stories and photographs were shared of when Cypress and the surrounding area was nothing but vast agricultural fields, and of the businesses that popped up in the area, like Hugh LaRue’s impeccable, well-stocked general store.
The drama that led up to the city eventually becoming just that, a city, was shared. The audience was educated on the long back-and-forth over whether to incorporate into an actual city or remain unincorporated land, dividing the dairy farmers and the others.
It was shared that at one point, Cypress was the “big city” of the area and that when those from everywhere from Long Beach to Anaheim wanted to get out of their rural towns and go to the city, Cypress was the place to be.
White Gold Days, for example, used to draw a crowd from the whole county to Cypress each year, for a parade and festival.
Attendees enjoyed reliving Cypress’ good old days and discovering connecting to the past.
When a picture was shown from White Gold Days, of a young woman leading the parade on a float, a woman in the audience pointed out that that was her mother.
