Los Alamitos grew from sugar beets into an air-base town

Los Alamitos has more history than its small size suggests. In 1896, William Clark of Montana bought rancho land to raise sugar beets. He planned the township of Los Alamitos and built a sugar refinery here, along with housing and recreation buildings for workers.

For a time, much of the land between today’s Lakewood area and the Santa Ana River became sugar-beet country. Workers and farm families came from several backgrounds, including Mexican, Belgian, French, and German communities.

Then the sugar beet industry faded. A later chapter began during World War II, when the U.S. Navy moved aircraft training from Terminal Island to Los Alamitos. The airfield brought jobs, people, and a new reason for the town to grow.

The base later became the Joint Forces Training Base. Los Alamitos became a chartered city on March 1, 1960. So when you pass Katella Avenue and Los Alamitos Boulevard, you are near the old crossroads of rancho land, beet fields, air training, and cityhood.