When you think of the Basque influence in California, you usually think of Santa Maria. But Basque sheepherders left their mark in Southern California as well.

Domingo Bastanchury was born in the French Pyrenees. He came to Orange County in the 1860s to raise sheep. It was good timing. Ginny King, who wrote "The Street Where You Live: Why Did They Name It...?" says the Civil War disrupted the south's cotton industry.

"The shortage of cotton created a high demand for wool, not only for Civil War uniforms, but for the reconstruction period that followed. And Bastanchury reaped a fortune in the sheep industry."

After a drought in 1877, Bastanchury switched to barley, oats, beans, and dairy cows. But he did better when oil and later artesian springs were discovered on his land. By 1915, the one-time sheepherder was selling water to the small community of Fullerton.

And Bastanchury's luck continued: his four sons turned to citrus, and introduced contoured planting on the hillsides. In 1920, they reportedly had the largest orange grove in world. The Depression wiped out the Bastanchury clan, but not Domingo's place in Orange County history. He's still known as "The Father of Fullerton."

(Airdate: 9/21/2008)