History of Orange Frontier

BY PHIL BRIGANDI, RICK TRAVIS AND DAVE PAULSEN

The Orange County Council was divided into Districts that were numbered for administrative purposes during the 1920’s. The first established Troop in the area was Troop 4 whom was chartered by either the First Presbyterian church of Westminster or other civic groups. Districts didn’t mean much until after the depression.The council split into the Orange Empire Council and the North Orange Council after World War II. The Westminster area was in the Orange Empire Area Council. In the late 1940’s, Westminster was in the Mid-West-Orange District (really, that was its name). By the early 1950s, that had become the Tri-City District.(Westminster historical trivia – did you know that Tri-City was the original name of the City of Westminster when it ncorporated in 1957. It referred to Westminster, Midway City, and Barber City – except Midway City backed out before incorporation.) Midway City has always been in the same District as Westminster.In 1957, the Tri-City District was renamed Las Bolsas after the Spanish Ranchero that made up most of western Orange County. It was split in 1964 to create Adelante District, and EI Capitan. Adelante included Westminster and also Huntington Beach. In 1967, Adelante was split to form Excalibur and Pacifica, with the Westminster area in Excalibur. Excalibur is represented by the original District Patch.Cypress and at least part of Seal Beach were in Sunset District of the old North Orange council. Sunset is described in 1970 as “Serving … Cypress, Los Alamitos, and sections of La Palma, Buena Park, Anaheim, Seal Beach, and Stanton.” It was Sunset District, because it was the western most district in the North Orange Council.That’s where things stood in 1972, when the Orange Empire Area Council and the North Orange Council merged to re-form the Orange County Council. At that time, Excalibur and parts of Sunset became Orange Frontier District.In 2008 the western portion of the Ahwahnee District, serving parts of Anaheim, Buena Park and La Palma, joined the Orange Frontier District as part of a Orange County Council restructuring. Prior to 1972, in the old North Orange County, the Ahwahnee District was known as the Walter Knott District (from Knott’s Berry Farm). The summer camp for the North Orange County Council was called Camp Ahwahnee (1955 – 1978) and was located near Running Springs. The name Ahwahnee stayed with the District from 1972 until 2008.
“On January 1, 2020, both Orange Frontier and El Capitan Districts were dissolved and merged into a new OCBSA District- Golden West.