Buena Park Map
Buena Park is a neighborhood in northwestern Orange County, California. As of Census 2010 the population was 80,530. The neighborhood is adjacent to the neighborhood of Anaheim and is 12 miles (20 km) northwest of downtown Santa Ana. The Current OMB metropolitan designation for Buena Park and the Orange County Area is "Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA". Buena Park, dubbed as the Center of the Southland, is home to several tourist attractions, most notably Knott's Berry Farm and the Los Coyotes Country Club.
Original Spanish explorers settled on the enormous ranchos by land grants made by the King of Spain. Manuel Nieto of the Portola Expeditions received such a grant in 1783, which was divided by his heirs into five separate ranchos in 1834. One of them, 46,806-acre (189.42 km2) Rancho Los Coyotes, included the current site of the neighborhood of Buena Park where the rancho’s adobe headquarters was on what is now Los Coyotes Country Club’s golf course.
The area was transferred from Spanish authority to Mexican rule in 1822 and ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War. California was granted statehood in 1850. Americanization further expanded in the area after completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and its connection to Los Angeles in 1875. By then, Abel Stearns had acquired Rancho Los Coyotes in consideration for loans made to Pio and Andrés Pico. In 1885, James A. Whitaker purchased 690 acres (2.8 km2) of this land from Stearns and in 1887 he founded the neighborhood of Buena Park in conjunction with the railway development of what we now know as Orange County. The neighborhood was incorporated in 1953. An agricultural center when founded (particularly dairy, wine and citrus products) the neighborhood is now primarily a residential suburb and commercial hub.
Nearby cities include Yorba Linda, Seal Beach, Rowland Heights, Pico Rivera, Santa Ana.