Local city information for Yorba Linda, CA

Yorba Linda is an affluent suburban community in northeastern Orange County, California, approximately northeast of Downtown Santa Ana, and southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.

As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,918. However, more recent development in eastern outskirts and northern hills of Yorba Linda has increased the population to nearly 71,000. One of Yorba Linda's most famous residents was the late former President Richard Nixon, who was born and raised in the city. The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is located in Yorba Linda.

The city was listed by CNN as the 21st best place in the U.S. to live in 2005 . Similarly, in an article by CNN Money, titled "The Richest (and Poorest) Places in the U.S." Yorba Linda was one of the richest U.S. cities and the highest in Orange County as reported by the Census data, showing median household income of $121,075; "Among towns of between 65,000 and 250,000 in population, Yorba Linda, California, where six-figure incomes are the rule, had the highest median income at $121,075"


This area was the home of the Chumash, Tongva and Juaneño Indians. In 1769 the Spanish expedition of Gaspar de Portolà passed through that included a soldier named Jose Antonio Yorba. In 1784 Yorba was granted 15 Spanish Leagues of land, that he called "Rancho San Antonio" later, through a family marriage, Yorba granted a parcel to Juan Pablo Grijalva, that became Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana in 1810. In 1834, his third son Don Bernardo Yorba I, 1801-1858 combined his father's lands with those granted to him by the Mexican provisional Governor José Figueroa, creating one of the greatest ranchos during that time and of that area. Most of this original land was retained after the Mexican American war in 1848 by descendents of the original Yorba family.

A section of the land was sold to the Janss Corporation in 1907, and it proceeded to subdivide the land and sell it for agriculture and manufacturing. It was connected to Los Angeles by the Pacific Electric Railroad. The small town turned into a growing city in the 1960s and after a failed annexation bid by Anaheim in 1963, Yorba Linda incorporated in 1967. The site of the Don Bernardo Yorba Hacienda is listed as a California Historical Landmark. A portion of the city's land is still owned and developed by descendents of Samuel Kraemer, who acquired it through his marriage to Angelina Yorba, the great granddaughter of Don Bernardo Yorba. The Yorba Family still owns portions of Yorba Linda, and there is still the Yorba Ranch on the side of a major freeway.

U.S. President Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda in 1913 and lived there until 1922. His reconstructed home is listed as a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark. Adjacent to this home is the Richard Nixon Library and Museum.

Another early 20th century resident of Yorba Linda was writer Jessamyn West, who was a second cousin to Richard Nixon on her mother's side of the family. The Wests moved to California from Indiana in 1909 and young Jessamyn attended schools in Yorba Linda and Fullerton. West later authored a number of books and collections of poems, including the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion, which was turned into a film, Friendly Persuasion, in 1956, starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire and Anthony Perkins. A city park named in her honor, Jessamyn West Park on Yorba Linda Boulevard at Club Terrace Drive, is situated on the West family's former farm property.

CNN Money reports that among towns of between 65,000 and 250,000 in population, Yorba Linda had the highest median income in the United States at $121,075. This Orange County town is considerably wealthier than the city that came in second place, Pleasanton, located in Northern California's Bay Area, which had a median income of $105,956.

In November of 2008 eastern Yorba Linda suffered from fires that destroyed 113 homes and damaged 50 others. The destruction was due largely to erratic winds causing embers to fly up to half a mile away. William Lockhart, captain of the Orange County Fire Authority, reported that water pressure is good when fighting a single family home fire, but during a profound firestorm, as was the case in this event, perfect pressure from every single hydrant at the same time is not possible.

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