A Second Oil Boom in Orange County
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At 3 a.m., oil began gushing from a derrick on a ranch six miles east of Fullerton, setting off Orange County’s second oil boom. The ranch was owned by Charles C. Chapman of Fullerton, a Valencia orange grower. Land prices in the Fullerton area skyrocketed and oil became a key to the city’s growth in the early 1920s. Chapman was Fullerton’s first mayor and chief benefactor of Chapman College.
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