When the Portola expedition marched through Orange County in 1769, explorers were looking for a pass through the foothills. They found it just north of the town now known as La Habra. Phil Brigandi, author of "Orange County Place Names A-Z," says the Spanish word for pass is "abra."

"And so you get La Abra – when you get the La and the Abra, you put an H in there as kind of a placeholder, so it's La Habra."

In 1839, Don Mariano Reyes Roldan named his 7,000 acre cattle ranch "Rancho Cañada de la Habra." A quarter of a century later, Abel Stearns bought the property. Soon after, heavy flooding followed by a terrible drought wiped out cattle ranches all over Southern California. But La Habra bounced back... eventually. By 1928, it grew more avocados than anywhere else in California. But the city hasn't forgotten its early roots. Today, there's a Portola Park just two blocks from La Habra Boulevard.

(Airdate: 7/26/2008)