| 50,000 Boy Scouts can’t be wrong | |
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Decades before Jamboree Road became a major thoroughfare for Newport Beach motorists, the unpaved land served as the entryway for nearly 50,000 people who attended the National Scout Jamboree.
Then-Irvine Company Vice President Bill Spurgeon had convinced Irvine Ranch President Myford Irvine to host the event in Orange County. The year was 1953. Only two other Jamborees had been held, and neither were on the West Coast. For a region that was growing ever so slowly, the Jamboree posed a logistical problem: how to deal with an influx of visitors who would spend a week living on hilly, undeveloped property. There were no roads or homes on Irvine Ranch, where Newport Center and the Eastbluff communities sit today. “It was weeds and grass growing,” said Newport Beach historian Jim Jennings. Over a seven-month period, county officials and local citizens built a temporary infrastructure they called “Tent City” that accommodated the thousands of visitors. The 3,000 acres of land were divided into 38 sections, each having a tent that served as a headquarters. The main headquarters were located on land now inhabited by Corona del Mar High School. There were temporary banks put in place. A makeshift fire station was erected. Marines provided lifeguards for the event. The Army provided a field hospital, and off-duty firemen from various Orange County cities volunteered their time. “This was the greatest cooperative operation I’ve ever seen,” said Ralph Whitford, a Costa Mesa resident and former Sea Scout who worked to prepare for the Jamboree. “It took total commitment by people all over the county.” Whitford, newly married and home from the Korean War, worked closely with Spurgeon on construction projects. One of the main projects involved bulldozing the ground to create a dust road so that food trucks could deliver goods to the Jamboree participants. A local Boy Scout troop painted signs to direct traffic. Whitford dug more than five miles of latrine holes and worked on securing pipes that brought water underground from MacArthur Boulevard. The entire project cost about $4 million, Whitford estimates. In late July, thousands of people descended upon Irvine Ranch. They covered the hills for an entire week. Local Sea Scouts were stationed by the Back Bay and put on water hazard patrol to ensure visiting scouts wouldn’t drown. In all, scouts and chaperons from 22 countries -- including Japan and Germany -- came for the event. “It was the largest single activity in Orange County,” Whitford said. “People from all walks of life participated. Everyone took pride in it.” After the visitors left, Tent City was razed. But people continued to use the dirt road to get to Balboa Island and Coast Highway from inland areas. For years to come, the road remained in its current condition. Eventually, the street was paved and named “Jamboree Road” for an event that many feel put Orange County on the map. In 2003, Whitford and other former scouts who attended the Jamboree gathered for a 50th anniversary. Plaques at Fashion Island commemorate the location where the Jamboree took place. Whitford said he still can’t believe how developed the area has become. Jennings often gets nostalgic about the old condition of the land. “I jokingly say I liked it better as a dirt road,” he said. “It had less traffic.” |
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