The Newland House gets its name from the original owners, William and Mary Newland, who built the house in 1898. When the house was built, much of the surrounding area was swamp land, known then as "Gospel Swamp". With the help of neighbors, William Newland was able to drain off the water giving access to the fertile land beneath. On the newly exposed ground, Newland planted celery, lima beans, chili peppers, and sugar beets.

The octagonal turret at the front of the house was William's office, where he conducted the farm's business. The view from the turret gave him a splendid panorama from Long Beach to Saddleback. The office turret was William's favorite room. He used it until he got older, and climbing the stair became too difficult. Mary and the seven daughters took it over and turned it into a sewing room. Over the years the Newlands and their ten children would occasionally find Native Indian artifacts around the grounds of the farm. The artifacts were from an ancient Indian village site that the house had been built on. In the 1930s the Work Progress Administration did an archaeological dig of the area and removed many of the valuable artifacts some dating back 5,000 years.

In 1933, Mary took charge of running the house and the farm upon William's death. She remained in the house until her own death in 1952. After Mary's death, the house was leased to the Signal Oil company who then leased it its employees. In 1974 the city allowed the Huntington Beach Historical Society to start restoring the house to its original glory. Finally on October 14, 1985, the house was designated an authentic Orange County Historic Site and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. A visitor to the museum will find the house furnished as it would have been when William and Mary resided there. This gives the visitor a sense of what life must have been like in the early part of the twentieth century. The museum is open to the public on Wednesday and Thursday from 2 p.m. to 4:30 P.M. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4:00 P.M. The tour is guided and takes about a half hour. Fees are $2 for adults and $1 for children. In the "Country Store", patrons to the museum can purchase gift items. Funds raised by items sold at the gift shop are used to maintain the museum.

For more information, please call the museum at (714) 962-5777.

Additional Hints (There are no hints for this cache)

3/12/2007 by Happy & Skippy
KnC and their traveling cache repair kit put this cache back in action! Thank you so much! --H & S :)

3/11/2007 by KnC
Great multi. WP1 needed some attention, so we were more than glad to help since the walk across the swamp was not something we were looking forward to... We could barely make out the structure on the hill in all the fog during our early morning cache adventure. Even as we approached the house there was an uneasy feeling like someone... or some Thing was watching us. As we neared the final destination two rabbits darted right passed us, and a Mocking Bird started it's song, then we heard an eerie noise coming from the other side of the barn (sounded like it was down in the swamp.). We signed the log & cautiously retreated... trying not to disturb anymore Spirits. TNLNSL TFTC!

3/11/2007 by Happy & Skippy
The first waypoint is either missing, or soon to be missing. All we have to do is find the first-waypoint-maker and we'll be set!

3/9/2007 by the Druids
Druid Frank found this one while there was an 18th birthday party going on at the Newland House tonight. Had to operate in super stealth mode! We've been meaning to do this one for ages and finally made it here. Picked up the "Travel Bug" TB that likes to travel. SL. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts!

3/6/2007 by 714_Tatted
This is my first multi-cache...Thanks for the history lesson. It's always awesome finding out new things about orange county and it's history.

3/3/2007 by Doggleboone
Nice views on this sunny March day! Thanks for bringing us here as we would never have visited otherwise. Bunny appeared to have lots of food, but decided to no show for our visit. So we left a TB to sweeten the pot a little. TFTC

1/25/2007 by moon stone
This was a great adventure. H+S have definately taught some great HB history this day. There was a well-fed rabbit guarding GZ. I had to Shu him away to capture the cache. TFTC

1/21/2007 by kathykathy
This was probably one of the funnest caches I've found! Spending the day with Singinggoose we decided to hop on the bikes and go caching (much funner than watching football) and this one was perfect because it was so close to my house. Well I knew the Newland House was there and have been to a wedding in the barn, but I had no idea about the rope swing! Oh my gosh that was fun, can't wait to go back and do it again! Oh and then when I got to the cache site I was digging around in this very dead looking bush, that's when Singingoose picked it up and moved it out of the way and told me it was a tumbleweed and to stop looking there. Hmmm, that would have been interesting, a traveling cache! Thanks for a fun cache and a great history lesson! See you around work Happy...

1/21/2007 by singinggoose
too cool! found the first and last only hindered by a tumble weed. between the two found lots of kids having fun. must admit had to go on the rope swing felt like i was a kid again. great detour you must take!!!!!!

1/14/2007 by Smoochersmom
Fun walk, the geo-mutt loved exploring the area. I had been to a birthday party in the "barn" so the Newland area was familiar. SLTNLN Thx 4 the rehide!!