August 7th in Seal Beach History

 On this date in 1886, the Los Angeles Times ran a news item worth quoting verbatim:

Anaheim Landing is at present a lively camp. Mrs. Scott, of Anaheim, leased the old warehouse and has fitted it up as a camp life hotel, dividing it up into rooms and making quite a comfortable retreat. Persons so inclined can have all the pleasures of camp life without the trouble of concocting food supplies for the inner man. There are also about twenty tents there, occupied by Anaheim families. Editor Melrose wends his way down there Saturdays, and hopes the change will coax a little flesh onto his bony frame. The boating and fishing are excellent, as is the bathing.

This item is worth quoting because not only it is one of the earliest examples of public relations copy for our locale, but it also uses the lovely turn of phrase, “all the pleasures of camp life without the trouble of concocting food supplies for the inner man.”

Here are some photos taken two years later that show what Anaheim Landing was like after the shipping trade abandoned it for the railroads. I think Mrs. Scott of Anaheim might have been on to something.

1888 Anaheim Landing – Perhaps editor Melrose is one of the healthier gentlemen in the water after two years of coaxing flesh onto his bony frame.

1888 Anaheim Landing – Tents probably occupied by Anaheim families

1888 Anaheim Landing – More tents

– Michael Dobkins

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