Buena Park

Buena Park is a city in northwestern Orange County, California, about 12 miles northwest of downtown Santa Ana, the county seat. As of Census 2010 the population was 80,530. The city, which tags itself as Center of the Southland, is home to several tourist attractions, most notably Knott's Berry Farm. Original Spanish explorers settled on the enormous ranchos by land grants made by the King of Spain. Manuel Nieto of the Portolà expeditions received such a grant in 1783, which was divided by his heirs into five separate ranchos in 1834. One of them, 46,806-acre Rancho Los Coyotes,... included the current site of the City of Buena Park. The rancho’s adobe headquarters lay on what is now Los Coyotes Country Club’s golf course. The area was transferred from Spanish authority to Mexican rule in 1822 and ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. California was granted statehood in 1850. Americanization further expanded in the area after completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and its connection to Los Angeles in 1875. By then, Abel Stearns had acquired Rancho Los Coyotes in consideration for loans made to Pio and Andrés Pico.
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