Here's a 1942 photo of local pioneer Tom Talbert with a bunch of pigs, in or near Huntington Beach. (Insert your own joke about government here.) Talbert was, at various intervals County Supervisor, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, a Huntington Beach City Councilmember and Mayor. He was also involved in all manner of enterprises, including real estate, oil, farming, manufacturing, and partnership in many other local businesses..
While never rising to the prominence of cattle or chicken ranches, hog farming was part of Orange County from very early on. In his second Orange County Almanac, Jim Sleeper reports that the Santa Ana Valley Pork Packing Plant was already in operation near Westminster by 1876. The L.A. Times described it as a thriving operation where "No. 1 corn-fed hogs are transformed into sweet, juicy breakfast morsels..." Yum!
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Jim goes on to say that "Gospel Swamp, once known as the land of 'Hogs and Hominy,' was famous for its porkers, most of which ran 250-300 lbs. Oddly neglected in its promotion literature, South Coast Plaza was once the prosperous pig farm of H.H. Wakeham... As for the largest hog [in Orange County], no one seems to have topped a sow raised in 1880 by J.J. Guinn of Anaheim. Butchered at six hundred pounds, the animal rendered out 200 lbs. of lard."
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Around 1900-1910, wild hogs could still be found living in various canyons and swamps around Orange County, including the river plain along the coast near Huntington Beach. The following comes from another Times article, (8-16-1959) looking back on those days:
"A farmer named Marcus Kujawsky at Adams and Brookhurst St., near the Santa Ana River, complained that ferocious animals (actually domesticated hogs gone wild) had a hideout nearby and were partaking too freely of his beans, corn, sweet potatoes and other crops.
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"[Tom] Talbert and Dennis Hallicy, a butcher, were invited to come and get them. The hogs were wary and difficult to get near -- but Hallicy, an excellent shot with a rifle, hid out in a fox hole and eventually annihilated the porkers.
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"When the hogs were slaughtered, the meat was found to be of excellent flavor and quality. The meat was sold at a market operated by the two men."
There is currently a Ralph's supermarket near the site of the Great South Huntington Hog Massacre, where one may aquire a wide variety of pork products without firing a shot.
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For the record, there were also "blind pigs" in Huntington Beach in those days. But that's a tale for another time.
