El Toro, the Early Years

After arriving from Boston in 1884, Dwight Whiting began buying foreclosed acreage of Rancho Cañada de los Alisos, adding dry-farmed orchards of olives and apricots and subdividing the land. Seeking to establish an English colony and attract settlers, he built St. George Episcopal Mission in 1891. Other figures also shaped Saddleback Valley’s development. In 1877, Charles Bennett bought land that included water rights from Aliso Creek, and that water eventually reached El Toro by pipeline, helping usher in the rural town’s development. El Toro School was built in 1890. Around 1910, John Osterman introduced the water-thrifty black-eye bean to valley farmers. Black-eye beans, along with barley, apricots, and walnuts, came to dominate the valley landscape, and while these crops fueled the local economy, dry-farming remained a necessity until dependable water supplies were secured, leaving people to gamble with the weather.

Lake Forest, California · United States