24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Brea, CA

Brea's name comes from the Spanish word for tar or pitch, a nod to the natural asphalt that seeped from its hills and was used by Native Americans and early settlers.

In 1894 landowner Abel Stearns sold 1,200 acres near the village of Olinda to the newly formed Union Oil Company, and the first well was drilled a year later.

Union Oil's Olinda Oil Well No. 1 struck oil in 1898, setting off a boom in the Brea-Olinda Oil Field that covered the surrounding hills with wooden drilling towers.

The village of Randolph was founded in 1908 south of Brea Canyon to house oil workers and their families, and its map was refiled on January 19, 1911 under the new name of Brea.

Brea was incorporated on February 23, 1917, as the eighth city of Orange County, with a population of about 752.

Baseball legend Walter Johnson grew up in the oil town of Olinda at the start of the 20th century and worked in the surrounding oil fields as a youth.

Brea's early slogan was 'Oil, Oranges, and Opportunity,' reflecting its shift from petroleum to citrus groves before becoming a major retail center anchored by the Brea Mall.

Brea had a population of 47,325 at the 2020 census.

Brea has about 16,787 households averaging 2.82 people each, and about 59.7% of its homes are owner-occupied.

Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea preserves the old Olinda townsite and oil history at the Olinda Oil Museum and Trail, and the park even holds a grove of coastal redwood trees.