On July 23, 1769, Gaspar de Portola led an expedition into what is now Orange County and camped a few miles east of the San Juan Capistrano area. On July 24, the expedition headed inland to avoid the many streams and swamps in the area. They found a large plateau area and camped that night on its western edge by a canyon which the Franciscans named San Francisco Solano. This was on the eastern side of Trabuco Creek about three miles downstream from the present Trabuco Oaks. While camped here on July 24-25, one of the soldiers lost his "trabuco" or musket, a most valuable possession to any soldier. To mark this loss, the stream was named Trabuco. The name has been associated with the mesa, the canyon and the entire area ever since.

Many years later an antique gun was found in the Trabuco Canyon area and is on exhibit at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

The museum describes the exhibity as: Gun, c. 1760. This steel gun was found in the Trabuco Canyon area, where the Portola Party lost a gun. The party named the canyon after the lost gun, though there is no evidence that this is the famed weapon

Early settlers of the canyon..
Jim Smith was a talker—no ordinary talker. . . a man given to blasphemous eloquence. When he started cussing. . . he could peel paint off a stove pipe." The canyon was named for James T. Smith, who was known as"old cussin' Jim" because of his colorful language. A beekeeper who settled in the north fork of Trabuco Canyon, he enlarged a house built in the 1870s and planted figs. When government surveyors plotted the canyon they chose "Holy Jim," rather than "Cussin' Jim", to place on their maps. They thought this was more appropriate.

The trail to the falls is not difficult. It crosses through Holy Jim Creek many times, rising gently until you reach the fork. At the fork, take the trail to the right for about 1/4-mile. Allow at least 1- 1/2 hours for a relaxed round trip. For the 5 -mile trek to Main Divide, take the left trail at the fork. Remnants of the stone wall are all that remain of Jim's 1870 house. The house was burned to the ground along with the hundreds of bee hives from which Jim made his living. The original fig orchard was also burned by the fire, but as can be seen, subsequent generations of figs have survived and are numerous in the canyon today. The chief source of income during the early days of the American settler period came from beekeeping. A single beekeeper could maintain up to 100 stands of hives. Honey thefts and hive damage by bears were common in the canyon, and were a significant factor in eliminating the grizzly bear in this area. Cussin' Jim's place was one of the last bee ranches in operation in the canyon. Thus, it was a frequent stop of a grizzly bear who was called "the honey thief." During 1907, this old honey thief destroyed 30 bee stands in Holy Jim and Trabuco Canyons. A trap was set for the honey thief, the bear was caught, but escaped with two hunters close behind. The hunters tracked the bear throughout the canyons for a month. The honey thief was finally brought down near the mouth of Trabuco Canyon - he was the last grizzly in the Santa Ana Mountains Forest.


The last "coast grizzly bear" in Orange County, shot by former game warden W.E. Ed Adkinson, on February 26, 1908. The bear was shot following raids on apiaries in Holy Jim Canyon.

National Forest
In 1893 President Benjamin Harrison set aside the 50,000 acre Trabuco Cañon Forest Reserve to protect the water supply for Orange County. This Federal Forest Reserve was one of the first in the new system. In 1899, the Trabuco Reserve was more than doubled, in response to a petition sent to the General Land Office by residents near Trabuco Canyon. President Roosevelt in 1908 combined with other federal lands, including the San Jacinto Forest Reserves to create the Cleveland National Forest, and the "Trabuco Cañon Forest Reserve" name was discontinued. This created a combined 1,904,826 acre reserve, though a decade later some land was returned to the public or combined with the San Bernardino Nation Forest. Today the Cleveland National Forest consists of approximately 424,000 acres of forest land. A National Forest Adventure Pass is required for parking in the Cleveland National Forest as well as other National Forests in Southern California, and may be obtained from Trabuco Canyon General Store (On the Corner of Trabuco Oaks Drive and Trabuco Canyon Rd), forest service visitor centers, or online.

Mining
The Santa Ana Tin Mining Company which had a number of claims in Trabuco Canyon was owned by Gail Borden of the Eagle Milk Company. He had spent a million dollars on the mine in 1903 but no tin was ever removed. Borden had since been using the canyon of Trabuco Creek for personal pleasure. L. A. Barrett, Assistant District Forester, commented sarcastically about these mines saying, "I have had personal knowledge of these claims for twenty years and know that the only money ever made from them has been secured through sale of stock and transfer to new owners." Barrett recommended in a report in 1912 that the validity of the claims be checked and that the land involved should be opened for camping and recreation.

Cook's Corner
Every biker in Southern California knows "Cook's", but it's also a favorite for south Orange County locals and those that appreciate good live Rock and Country music. Cook's Corner is a California Historic Landmark and this corner of land has been a gathering spot since before the turn of the century. Local history records it as the site for informal outdoor classes in the 1880s, where students convened while their school was being built down the road. In 1926, Earl Jackson "Jack" Cook, whose father obtained the land in a trade in 1883, opened up a small food stand across the road from the current site.



Cook obtained title over the entire larger land parcel one acre at a time. The local Serrano family owned much of the land around the canyon. Their ancestors received this land from a Spanish land grant. Old Mr. Serrano went down to Cook's every day for "refreshment". Sometimes Mr. Serrano brought home a big five liter jug of libation. Anytime he took a jug along, old Jack Cook notched a mark on the counter top. When the notches reached 160 the agreement was that Cook was entitled to the 160 acres of land. In the 1960s the Norbertine Fathers, exiled from Hungary, purchased 34 acres of land from Cook and proceeded to build St. Michael's Abbey and seminary. Priests from the Abbey donate their time every spring to perform the famous "Blessing of the Bikes".

A bar first opened there in 1933, when Cook borrowed a friend’s honey hut–a screened open-air shack in which honey was harvested–and stocked it with beer. Cook hatched his plan for a road-side bar during a celebratory barbecue the day after prohibition was repealed.

In 1946, Cook bought the existing building, a single-story mess hall with a walk-in cooler from the mothballed Santa Ana Army Air Base and the tavern was born. In 1970, a Santa Ana motorcycle accessories owner purchased it and Cook's Corner was molded into the old fashion roadhouse it represents today. It has since been purchased by some new business partners who have done a great deal to bring the bar up to code and make it less creepy, yet it still retains all of it's rustic charm.



Over the decades, ranch hands and El Toro Marines, bikers and weekend hikers have all passed through the bar’s swinging doors.

In July of 1908, two hunters failed to extinguish their campfire at the junction of Trabuco and Holy Jim Canyons. The escaped fire swept through both canyons and charred over 4,000 acres. The hunters were apprehended by the Forest Service and fined for the damage their carelessness had caused.