San Clemente

San Clemente Real Estate

Many have heard the name, Ole Hanson, but who was this early California pioneer that founded the City of San Clemente? The following is a brief history of the man that built San Clemente.

Chosen as arbitrator in a large land dispute in Mexico City, he was given a one-half interest in 52,000 acres of oil land there. He left Mexico City for the States worth half a million dollars. While in Mexico, he envisioned Southern California in a new perspective.

Ole Hanson had first discovered the San Clemente area years before on a train trip between Los Angeles and San Diego. He had even paid a deposit to John Forster for Capistrano Beach, but later changed his mind. Therefore, when his friend, Hamilton Cotton, approached him in 1925 with the proposition from the syndicate he headed that was purchasing what later became San Clemente, Ole Hanson knew this was the “dream site” for his Spanish Village by the Sea. He became the largest holder in the syndicate, then the owner of the 2,000 acres which he named ~San Clemente.

World’s Best Climate

It’s more than a local’s license plate frame. San Clemente is nestled between two large coastal canyons. To the south are the San Mateo/Christianitos canyons and to the north are the Saddleback Valley/Ortega canyons. Together these canyons both block and funnel storms. It’s possible to stand at the end of the pier with blue sky above and be surrounded by clouds on the horizon. During the El Nino years those canyons act as funnels giving San Clemente more than it’s fair share of rain.