Claire Marie Vogel - Laguna Beach

Aliso Canyon is pictured in 1902. In 1870, Eugene Salter came through Aliso Canyon, claimed 152 acres of government land in South Laguna under the Homestead Act, and built a one-room shack. Within two years, Salter abandoned his home and the land. George and Sarah Thurston had been traveling with their children from Utah for close to nine months before coming to Laguna Beach. George was directed to Salters cabin in Aliso Canyon and quickly decided to move his family there. The Thurstons claimed the abandoned homestead, set up a house, and planted various gardens and tree groves. Their nearest neighbors were over 10 miles away, and they were cut off from what is now the main part of town. The family was not alone forever, as the town gained new homesteaders over the following years and visitors began to come more often. (Courtesy of the Turnbull Collection/First American Title Corporation.)

A lone fisherman stands on Victoria Beach with Goff Island in the background. The rock formation was named after the early Laguna settler Hubbard Goff. (Courtesy of the Phillips family.)

The old road through the Laguna Canyon is pictured here in its most basic state. The stagecoach would come in from Santa Ana and through El Toro on this road to bring visitors into Laguna. (Courtesy of the Laguna Beach Historical Society.)

Thousand Steps Beach is pictured in the early 1920s and is desolate except for the footsteps in the sand. Thousand Steps Beach actually only has about 230 steps to the stairs in place now, but it is still a long and steep walk down. Because of its hidden access, it is a beach that is most often used by locals. (Courtesy of the Turnbull Collection/First American Title Corporation.)

The Thurston home is pictured along Aliso Creek. In the 1940s, a tract of 84 acres was purchased in Aliso Canyon for a golf course. In 1950, Laguna Beach Country Club opened, and it became the first golf course in Laguna Beach. There are plans underway to build a replicate version of the Thurston home in order to show people what it might be like to live on this beautiful land and to keep the memory alive of this important pioneer family. (Courtesy of the Turnbull Collection/ First American Title Corporation.)

This c. 1915 image shows the location of what is now Laguna Canyon Road going toward the ocean. The house pictured is the Harvey Hemenway homestead, which is sitting on what is now approximately the corner of Canyon Acres Drive and Arroyo Road. Hemenway came to Laguna Beach in a very unexpected way. After being abducted in San Francisco, he was forced onto a ship, which was to take him down to South America for slave labor. While aboard the ship, Hemenway saw some lights on the shores of Laguna, jumped the ship, and escaped to shore. Hemenway then homesteaded 500 acres of land in the 1890s and was said to have called it Canyon Acres, which evidently lead to the naming of the nearby road. (Courtesy of the Laguna Beach Historical Society.)

The early Mormon pioneer Andrew Wesley Thompson (center), his family (left), and the Starkey family (right) are pictured here in 1888. In 1876, Thompson and his family came to what was then called Lagona and purchased 172 acres. Thompson was a preacher of the Church of Latter-day Saints, and it is thought that his influence may have encouraged other Mormons to settle in Laguna Beach as well. (Courtesy of the Ramsey Collection.)