Industry, Radio, & Shipping

Merle and Mabel Ramsey in their book “The First 100 Years in Laguna Beach 1876 - 1976� write the following:

INDUSTRY IN THE EARLY DAYS

Elmer Jahraus arrived in the village in 1903 and established a cigar factory in 1905 in the lower story of the Yoch Hotel. It was an exclusive product and was not for local consumption. It was shipped throughout the United States to only certain people. It was transported by stagecoach from Laguna Beach to EI Toro and then by train throughout the U.S.

Elmer Jahraus also became Laguna's first real estate broker. He made the first sale of Emerald Bay. Laguna Beach takes pride in the Elmer Jahraus Park and the fourth generation of his family.

The first radio broadcast in Laguna Beach was through a window of a log cabin by Lynn Aufdenkamp in 1914.

SHIPPING IN THE 1880's

Laguna Beach was blessed with the schooner "Emma". It was originally a whaling vessel. Later owned by Captain Oliver Brooks, Onnie Golf and Fred Stocking, and lay at anchor at Ring Rock which is now known as Wood's Cove. It was active between 1886 to 1889 carrying barley hay from Laguna to San Diego to supply the feed for the horses used in the stagecoach runs into New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. When the Santa Fe Railway tracked in to San Diego from Los Angeles in 1889, the "Emma" was no longer needed to transport hay. Mrs. Cora Dumphy, daughter of Captain Brooks (who celebrated her 95th birthday in 1973) told us that the ship was later wrecked at Arch Beach during a storm. She died in 1974. She was writing the history of the Mormon Church at the time of her death.

The Laguna Beach Historical Society thanks the Ramsey family for permission to publish.