For more than 160 years, people have visited what is now Irvine Regional Park. In the 1850s, locals referred to an old oak grove on the historic Irvine Ranch as “the Picnic Grounds.” It became so popular that in 1897 the Irvine Company donated the grove and 160 acres to create Orange County’s first park, “Orange County Park.” The county eventually renamed it “Irvine Regional Park” in honor of its roots in the old Irvine Ranch.
How an old oak grove became OC’s most enduring park
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