ORANGE COUNTY ALMANAC : An Enticement to Be Seated
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When the Legislature voted in 1889 to create Orange County, the bill did not state which city would be the county seat. That decision was left up to voters of the new county. Santa Ana and Orange were the two contenders for becoming county seat. To entice voters, the city of Orange offered to donate the Rochester Hotel in the city as the county courthouse. Santa Ana supporters denounced the offer as being “the great Orange hotel fraud.”
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