Bell’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Bell. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Gabrieliño Indians migrated to the place now called Bell in 500 B.C. Spaniards have been living in this area of California since the mid-18th century. Among the early Spanish settlers was one of California's first families, the Lugos.
While stationed at Mission San Antonio de Padua near Salinas, California, Francisco Lugo's first California son, Antonio María Lugo was born in 1775, who would become Don Antonio María Lugo, Spanish aristocrat and soldier, who settled on 30,000 acres of land that encompasses the present-day City of Bell. In 1810, the king of Spain formally granted the land to Lugo as a reward for his military service and the acreage became known as Rancho San Antonio.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Bell’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bell’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewGroup of strawberry pickers in a …, c. 1910: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Bell, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Group of strawberry pickers in a strawberry field in Bell, California, ca.1910 (CHS-1130) (c. 1910) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.